Acknowledgements - Jim Meehan

Jim Meehan and his wife Marsha joined the Wethersfield Historical Society in 2006 after retiring from careers in Information Technology at The Travelers.

In addition to the historical society Jim is a member of the Men's Garden Club of Wethersfield where he edits the newsletter and writes a monthly column; The Wethersfield Beautification Trust where he moves dirt and pulls weeds; and (with Marsha) of WWUH - "Public Alternative Radio from the University of Hartford, 91.3 FM and wwuh.org" as members of the classical music staff.

He also writes essays for his Internet blog www.compostablematter.com.

Jim thanks Melissa Josefiak of Wethersfield Historical Society, Becky & Mike Zaliznock, and the staffs of the Wethersfield's Town Clerk's and Engineering departments for their help in researching this article. Special thanks to Marsha Meehan -- first-reader, editor, fact-checker and most importantly wife.


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284 Brimfield Road - Table of Contents

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The "Member Articles" section of this website includes research and writing of Wethersfield Historical Society members representative of their interest and enthusiasm for topics related to Wethersfield history and culture. Member Articles are not edited by Wethersfield Historical Society staff and while we hope you find the contributions to "Member Articles" interesting and informative, they do not reflect the research, scholarly editing, views, or opinions of Wethersfield Historical Society's staff, Governing Board or general membership as a whole

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Chapter 1 - The Colour of History
Chapter 2 - A Certain Parcel of Land
Chapter 3 - Substantially Correct Information
Chapter 4 - Brimfield Gardens
Chapter 5 - Plan of a Residence Suburb
Chapter 6 - Connecting With Hartford
Chapter 7 - Building The Boulevard
Chapter 8 - The Ark and the Gingko Tree
Postscript and Bibliography - Postscript and Bibliography
Acknowledgements - Jim Meehan

Chapter I - The Colour of History

When Marsha and I bought our house on the corner of Brimfield Road and Folly Brook Boulevard in Wethersfield we had neither the time nor the inclination to pay attention to the history of either our new abode or the area in which it resides. There was after all no "Battle of Brimfield Road", or any other textbook-worthy event in the past life of our new neighborhood.






















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Now, as members of Wethersfield Historical Society, we have come to believe that the history of our house and its surrounding neighborhood is, in its own way, as much a part of the story of our town as the 1781 meeting between General George Washington and General Comte de Rochambeau, or the great flood of 1936.

No house is typical of all others. No neighborhood is representative. In Wethersfield, as in all others towns, each home and every locality is its own unique tale, filled with its own singular collection of characters, and its own distinct set of happenings. The interweaving of all these individual narratives is the story of a town. The history of our home at 284 Brimfield Road is a part of the history of Wethersfield.

Doctor Samuel Johnson (essayist, poet, biographer, lexicographer and a critic of English Literature) said, "We must consider how very little history there is; I mean real authentick history. That certain Kings reigned, and certain battles were fought, we can depend on as true; but all the colouring, all the philosophy of history is conjecture."

In that spirit here is what I have found and what I have conjectured about the history of my homestead and its immediately surrounding area.

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Chapter II - A Certain Parcel of Land

According to our mortgage dated April 13, 1977 we had acquired:

"A certain piece or parcel of land with the buildings thereon situated in said Town of Wethersfield, known as 284 Brimfield Road and as portions of Lots 50, 51 and 52 shown on a certain map entitled 'Brimfield Gardens Add. Property of Lucy E. Isaacson, Oscar Isaacson, Wethersfield, Conn. Scale 1 inch = 50 feet Dec. 1923 Spencer and Washburn, Inc., Eng'rs., Norman C. Spencer, Pres't' on file in the Town Clerk’s Office in said Wethersfield,
said premises being more particularly bounded and described as follows:
NORTHERLY - By Brimfield Road, eighty-seven and seventy hundredths (87.71) feet; EASTERLY - By land now or formerly of Alphonse M. Napolitano et el, one hundred fifty (150) feet;
SOUTHERLY - By land now or formerly of Charles Hanko et al, sixty-three and one one-hundredths (63.01) feet;
and WESTERLY - By Folly Brook Boulevard, one hundred fifty-one and eighty-four one-hundredths (151.84) feet."

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Or as described by the Town Assessor:
"Lot Size: 0.26 AC
House Style: Colonial
Year Built: 1946
Number of Stories: 2
Exterior Wall: Wood
Roof Style: Gable/Hip"

Neither of our Easterly and Southerly neighbors turned out as specified in the document. In fact our Eastern neighbor was a former high school classmate of Marsha’s (Wethersfield High -- 1961) plus her husband and two daughters.

Since then homes have been repainted or covered with siding; additions and decks have been built; children have grown and moved away; adults have retired and relocated -- or stayed; couples and families have moved in -- and out; sewers have been improved; yards have been re-landscaped; new trees have been planted, old ones cut down while the survivors have increased dramatically in height; and neighbors have been born while others have died -- two of them good friends. Still the general character and look of the neighborhood is pretty much the same as it was on our April 1977 closing date.

We bought the house from Mary Ellen and Tom Willsey who had purchased it one and one half years earlier from Louise and George Burns. Mr. Burns was apparently extremely well known around town as evidenced by several conversations that I had similar to one at Premier Dry Cleaners shortly after we had moved in to 284 Brimfield Road.

As I was giving my address the person waiting on me said without hesitation, "Oh, George Burns' house." We never met Mr. Burns but several years ago his son did stop by our house, identified himself, and asked to take a quick walk-through of his old residence. It still being the pre-9/11 trusting world of the twentieth century we allowed him access and after about a five-minute tour he thanked us and left.

Shortly after we moved in a man walked into our yard while I was doing lawn work and introduced himself as Ed Kenyon, the initial owner and the person from whom George Burns purchased.

That was pretty much the extent of my neighborhood knowledge when I decided to undertake this little historical project.

I also had a few questions.

* Why is it called Folly Brook “Boulevard” rather than “Road” or “Street”?

* What was the origin of the two Gingko trees ­-- those unusual deciduous Chinese conifers, with fan-shaped leaves and yellow flowers -- that live up the street?

* What exactly was the “Brimfield Gardens Add” of which (according to my deed) my land was once a part?

* Who was the architect and builder of our house and did they build others in town?

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Chapter III – Substantially Correct Information

Fortunately for me the Wethersfield Town Clerk's Office is staffed by a group of women who have pretty much heard all the possible off-the-wall questions from the most neophyte researchers. And are able to answer these queries with patience and direct us to the appropriate resources, while at the same time issuing marriage licenses to nervous young couples and supplying dog licenses to anxious pet owners who have waited until the very possible last minute to acquire them.

The department is, from one perspective, a people and paper based search engine -- a word that today means a "program for the retrieval of data from a database or network, esp. the Internet" but historically has meant the manual recording and filing of complex essential information, accurately, using a process that then allows anyone to promptly find it.



The "certain map entitled 'Brimfield Gardens Add. Property of Lucy E. Isaacson, Oscar Isaacson, Wethersfield, Conn. Scale 1 inch = 50 feet Dec. 1923 Spencer and Washburn, Inc., Eng’rs., Norman C. Spencer, Pres’t’on file in the Town Clerk’s Office in said Wethersfield,'" was listed in the map index and a copy was pulled from the appropriate shelf and presented to me within minutes.
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At the bottom of the document were the words, "We hereby certify that this map is substantially correct. Spencer and Washburn, Inc., Eng'rs” [emphasis added] Quick access to "substantially correct" information -- I was off to a really good start.

Tracing the ownership of property proved to be equally simple.

Adjacent to the office area for the Town Clerks was a series of books containing the "Grantee (or Grantor) Index to land Records in Wethersfield Connecticut." Grantees are basically the buyers and Grantors the sellers. (When I did most of this research the Town Clerk's Office was in its temporary location during reconstruction of the Town Hall.)

I was shown how to look up the grantee information from our purchase of 284 Brimfield Road. The object of my search was the volume number of the book and within that the page number where the documents officially recording the transaction are stored -- in this case volume 305, page 217.

The records themselves were stored behind the grantee/grantor information in a twenty by twenty foot room with books along the outer walls and a five-foot tall metal-topped table with a slight peak in the middle. It was filled with the scents of dust, leather and decaying paper -- the aroma of historical research.

The older records, including ours, were kept in leather bound volumes of several hundred pages each. The animal skin covers are fading in color and about one quarter inch thick. These tomes were stacked on their sides with the volume number printed on their spine so that it can be read from that angle. Each cubbyhole had small metal wheels on which the ledgers slide in and out. At several hundred pages each plus the covers the books are relatively heavy, as they should be given the heft of history that is within.

The newer ones are kept in considerably less impressive looking hard plastic binders with way-fewer pages and stored upright in conventional office shelving. Sixty years from now these polymer binders will no doubt look positively "historic" when compared to the electronically stored information of that time.

Volume 305, page 217 contained a copy of the same mortgage document that we had in our home files with one major exception. Written by hand along the right edge of the page were the words "Volume 295, page 546" indicating the location of the immediately preceding transaction relating to his property. In this case the reference led me to the sale of 284 Brimfield Road by George R and Louise E Burns to Thomas and Mary Ellen Willsey (v 295, p 546 – 7/30/75).

From there I followed the very short trail backwards in time

Edward H and Mary B Kenyon to George R and Louise E Burns.
(v 174, p 155 – 12/28/56)

Frances E Young to Edward H and Mary B Kenyon
(v 121, p 479 – 12/10/46 and v 121, p 481 – 12/10/46)
(two transactions: one for the Easterly 26.75’ of Brimfield Gardens lot 51 plus the Westerly 23.25’ of lot 50 and the second for the Westerly remainder of lot 51. The Kenyons later (v 148, p 487 - 9/21/53) bought the additional five feet that makes up 284 Brimfield Road from James H and Hetta B Torrey.)

Francis E Young acquired the property in two separate transactions:
• a purchase of Lot 51 from Lucy Isaacson on September 26th, 1935
• and the acquisition of Lot 50 from the Town of Wethersfield who had foreclosed it on January 3, 1945.
"Taxes Due May 1, 1930 thru 1933, 1935 and 1936 $31.47
Taxes due July 1, 1937 thru 1942 $31.84
Interest due $25.98
Lien fees due thereon $30.41
Sewer Assessment Metropolitan District laid 7/6/38 $ 8.07
Sewer assessment Metropolitan District laid 6/1/38 $130.06

"...fair market value of each of such properties is not more than five thousand dollars and such value is less than the total amount due..."

Beginning with the 1935 sale all the documents contained the statement "Lots number 51 and 52 ...were affected by the building line of the lay-out of the Folly Brook Boulevard as laid out by the Metropolitan District Commission [and]...are subject to said building line..."

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Chapter IV Brimfield Gardens

Brimfield Gardens was a planned development of the land on Brimfield Road, Clearfield Road, the south side of Dale Road and Wolcott Hill Road between Dale Road and Brimfield Road.

Five maps were filed with the Town Clerk of Wethersfield:
1) Brimfield Gardens Filed 12/14/21
Lots 1-36 on Brimfield Street and Wolcott Hill Road [East side of Wolcott Hill Road]

2) Brimfield Gardens Add. Filed 4/1/25
Dale Road, Clearfield Road and Brimfield Street

3) Brimfield Gardens Add. Filed 4/1/25
Lots 37-140 and 120A-120B-1221A-121B Wolcott Hill Road-Dale Road- Clearfield Road- Brimfield Street

4) Brimfield Gardens West Filed 11/9/27
Lots 143-268 Brimfield Street and Clearfield Road [from Brimfield Gardens Add West to Ridge Road]

The map of Brimfield Gardens Add [ition] referred to in my deed was filed in December 1923 by Lucy and Oscar Isaacson and was bordered:
NORTHERLY - By Dale Road with defined lots on the south side of that street
EASTERLY - By Wolcott Hill Road
SOUTHERLY - By property of the Churchill Brothers along what is now the southerly property line of Brimfield Road houses.
WESTERLY - By property of Lucy E Isaacson or John Isaacson about midway between what is today Folly Brook Boulevard and Edward Street.

The map and several other documents use the name Brimfield "Street" rather than "Road". Brimfield Street itself was laid out with thirteen lots on each side of the street (#s 45-57 on the south side and #s 58 – 70 on the north). Twenty-four of the lots have a fifty-foot frontage and two show a front of seventy-one and five hundredths feet. All of them are one hundred fifty feet deep.

According to the Grantee Index to Land Records in Wethersfield, Connecticut, the vast majority of the property in Brimfield Gardens and Brimfield Gardens Addition was owned by members the Isaacson family -- Charles, Edward, Oscar, and Lucy -- and were purchased from various grantors as early as 1896 continuing into the 1920’s.

Among the properties purchased during that time were "The Robbins Pasture" and "Meadow Island" by Edward Isaacson from Silas Robbins and Andrew Brougher respectively and "The Swamp" by John Isaacson from Eliza S and Lewis H Francis.

There is an Edward A. Isaacson is identified as being a Hartford Trolley Carman in 1910 in "The First 100 Years, Transit to Wethersfield" at the Wethersfield Historical Society. While we cannot be certain that this is the same person, Melissa Josefiak, Assistant Director at the society, says that it was a common pattern for people to obtain professional jobs in larger cities in order to earn money and establish credit before investing in suburban areas.

The "Rate Book List of 1930 - Town of Wethersfield" lists Edward A. Isaacson as owning property on Wells Road listed at $64,695 and taxed $1358.60 and an auto business also on Wells Road listed at $610 and taxed at $12.81

Tax records from the Town of Wethersfield also at the society show that Oscar and Lucy Isaacson lived at 695 Wolcott Hill Road - Lot Number 80 (95 feet by 174.31 feet) of the Brimfield Gardens Addition. The house was sold to Clarence N. Gustafson and Emmy J Olsen in 1946.

The 1930 Rate Book showed Oscar and Lucy paying $671.24 on their listing of $31,965 which included the property at 695 Wolcott Hill Road as well as "Capitol City Lumber" ($1,30/$28.35) on lot numbers 55-59, 65 and 66 and "Atlas Sand and Gravel" ($750) on lot numbers 63, 64, 51 and 52 -- two of the lots that now make up my property.

I found an entry for the lumber company in a 1920 State of Connecticut Comptroller's Report as the recipient of $24,756.40 from the State Park Commission and another mention in Geer’s 1898 Hartford City Directory with the following:
Inc. May 31, 1893, Capitol $10,000, 25 Front St.,
H.W. Fox, Pres & Tr. Timothy Burke Sec'y
Directors - H.W. Fox, John Kimball, Timothy J. Burke
Annual meeting first Tuesday after 2d Monday in June

In addition to corporate information there were listings of individual persons in the directory but no mention of any named Isaacson.

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Chapter V – Plan Of A Residence Suburb

Because of the lack of more definite information on Brimfield Gardens or the Isaacsons, Melissa suggested that I look at "Plan of A Residence Suburb Wethersfield Connecticut prepared for the Town Plan Commission in 1928 by Herbert S. Swan, City Planner" (of which the society has several copies) to see what else was happening in town at that time.

The document begins "But yesterday Wethersfield was a rural community; today it is semi-rural; tomorrow it promises to be one of Hartford’s densely built suburbs."

Whoever they were, the Isaacson clan apparently shared the view of the 1928 Town Plan Commission as to the future direction of this small town immediately south of Hartford.



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And the Brimfield Gardens template fit nicely into the Proposed town plan of 1928 with one exception -- in some of the places where the Isaacsons envisioned houses the town saw a pressing need for some major north-south thoroughfares.

"If nothing is done to assure that the most heavily traveled through streets are permanently retained as express routes for the future, it will only be a question of time until all of these main traffic highways will become clogged with slow traffic. It is of utmost importance to retain these arterial traffic-ways as through express streets for fast traffic between distant points.

"To make such thoroughfares 100 feet wide and leave them as ordinary streets will not accomplish this end....

"...With a width of 200 feet, such a parkway could have sidewalks and planting strips on either side of the roadway, aggregating a width of 72 feet...

"Four of these parkways are recommended in the comprehensive plan for Wethersfield: Griswoldville Parkway, Middletown Parkway, New Haven Parkway and Goodwin Parkway

"... Goodwin Parkway extends from the southerly limits of Goodwin Park up either side of Beaver Brook to its source, as an informal parkway varying in width according to the contours of the ground as well as to the limitations imposed by private developments. At the source of Beaver Brook it proceeds as a formal parkway in a southerly directions to Griswold Street, which it crosses, and thence in a southeasterly direction down Goff Brook into Mill Street, across the railroad tracks to its intersection with the Middletown Parkway."

The map included with this report shows a dash-line drawn parkway and the word "GOODWIN" drawn on top of parts of lot numbers 52-55, 63-60, 95-98, 103-106, and 135-138 of Brimfield Gardens Add. -- pretty much the route of today’s Folly Brook Boulevard.

Houses had been built in Brimfield Gardens Addition prior to the publication of the town plan -- although, like our house, not strictly according to the Brimfield Gardens plan.

In 1920 the houses at 256 Brimfield Road (lot 44) and 237 Brimfield Road (lot 76) were built. Lucy and Oscar Isaacson sold the former to Gertrude Tower November 11, 1926 and the latter was purchased from the same sellers by James Miller Rasmussen on July 16, 1924. Other houses on Brimfield Street that were built in the 1920's were: 245 (1924), 242 (1925), 268 (1926), 248, 253 and 264 (1927), 209 236, 263, 267, and 270 (1928).

Brimfield Gardens, in one form or another, was coming to fruition; Wethersfield was transforming itself from semi-rural to suburban; and a plan, at least on paper, was in place.
"Now that it has prepared a town plan, the work of planning Wethersfield has but fairly commenced. The preparation of a plan, of course, merely inaugurates the planning program." (1928 Town Plan)

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Chapter VI - Connecting With Hartford

The major issue in the suburbanization of Wethersfield identified in the 1928 town plan was "Thoroughfare Connections With Hartford."

"The thoroughfare facilities between Wethersfield and the down-town business district in Hartford must be of the best, in order to facilitate the proper development of the large vacant areas in Wethersfield.

"There are today [1928] but three thoroughfares in Hartford that extend in a southerly direction to the Wethersfield town line -- Wethersfield Avenue, Franklin Avenue, and Maple Avenue. A fourth, Campfield Avenue, tops a half-block short of the Wethersfield town line.... Of the different thoroughfares that come down to the town line, only one -- the New Haven Turnpike -- traverses the entire town of Wethersfield."

What is now known as the Berlin Turnpike was, in 1928, called the New Haven Turnpike.

According to www.kurumi.com
"Although the Berlin Turnpike never charged a toll, its ancestor did two centuries ago. In October 1798, the Hartford and New Haven Turnpike Company was created, and the road opening in 1799 was one of the first turnpikes to eschew existing roads and be built on as straight a line as feasible. (Though Berlin historian Kathleen Murray reports in a New York Times article that the Hartford - New Haven Path on this route dates back to 1717.)

"Leaving Hartford on Maple Street, the turnpike mostly followed today's US 5 through Meriden into New Haven, entering on Whitney Avenue.

"I'm not sure if the name 'Berlin Turnpike' predates the time the road was widened in 1942 -- there was no such name in the 19th-century turnpike era. But the road was nonetheless important, and included in Connecticut's trunk line system in 1913. When the New England Interstate route numbering system was adopted in 1922, the road became part of New England Route 2. When the US route system was inaugurated in 1926, NE-2 became US 5."

In other words the Berlin Turnpike developed pretty much into what the 1928 Wethersfield town plan wanted, when it wanted it.

"The New Haven Turnpike through Wethersfield is merely an ordinary state highway with a substantial pavement 18 feet wide. The comprehensive plan would convert this thoroughfare into a formal parkway with a width of 200 feet.”

And another north-south thoroughfare, not mentioned at all in the 1928 town plan, probably satisfied the remaining north-south traffic requirements.

"The alignment of Route 99 was originally designated as part of New England Interstate Route 10 in the 1920s. The Silas Deane Highway was built in 1930 and New England Route 10 was shifted slightly west to use the new highway. In the 1932 state highway renumbering, the alignment was re-designated as Route 9. When Route 9 was upgraded to an expressway between I-91 and I-95 in 1969, the old surface alignment became Route 99." (wikipedia.org/wiki/Silas_Deane_Highway)

With easy access to and from the city of Hartford along both the east and west borders of town (possibly financed by state and federal monies) there apparently was no longer any real need for a road of the size and complexity of Goodwin Parkway.

The 1928 Wethersfield town Plan says "This parkway, however, has a function that is almost as important -- probably more important -- than to serve traffic. The land of either side of Beaver Brook is low and marshy. Although the land is capable of being drained, this would be expensive, and it is a question whether, because of existing developments and the obstacles that might be thrown into the way of developing the land with private buildings might not be so great as to simply treat it as a parkway.... If present conditions are allowed to continue, it is feared that these may cast a blight upon large areas of land in either side and thus prejudice the best development of the whole town."

The Goodwin Parkway was never built. Instead, as described in its minutes, on July 10, 1933 The Bureau of Public Works of the Metropolitan [Water] District "respectfully" recommended "the layout of a street or highway to be known as Folly Brook Boulevard extending from Camp Field Avenue in Hartford to Griswold Road in Wethersfield."


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Chapter VII – Building The Boulevard

The staff in the Wethersfield Town Engineer's office found a 1935 map of the proposed Folly Brook Boulevard prepared by the "Regional Planning Commission of the Metropolitan District", but no additional information. So I emailed the Metropolitan District Commission to see if they had any historical records or documentation that I might be able to use to help my research, and Matt Nozzolio, spokesman for the agency, sent me "copies from the MDC Commission minutes from 1933 and 1935 that may be of interest."

The specifications for Folly Brook Boulevard set forth by the minutes of July 10, 1933 were an entertaining mixture of precise numeric details and eyeball approximations.

"The centerline to begin at a point in the south street line of Victoria Road, coordinates 37285.54, east 67001.05... 0.7 feet below woodwork at the southwest corner of the frame house numbered 420 Nott Street...64.62 feet westerly from a chisel mark on the concrete foundation at the northwest corner of the house numbered 78 Clearfield Street on the south side and about 40 feet west of Linden Street."

Beyond the already existing Hartford Streets of Campfield Avenue and Victoria Road the Boulevard was to be one hundred feet wide at its northern extremity and seventy-five feet in width as it merges with Griswold "Street" (now Road) -- "50 feet west [and east] of and parallel to the center line to a point about 397 feet north of the north street line of Prospect Street; thence to Prospect Street the west [and east] street line to be 37.5 west [and east] of and parallel to the center line and coincident with the west [and east] street line as now dedicated.”
This tapering of the roadway jibes with the configuration of the originally proposed Goodwin Parkway that likewise narrows down in roughly the same area to line up with Griswold Street. The “about 397 feet north of …Prospect Street" places the narrowing down point closer to Griswold Road than where it actually ended up. It seems likely that since construction of Folly Brook Boulevard ended at Nott Street and did not resume until Brimfield Road it was decided to begin the seventy-five foot portion of the Boulevard at that point rather than a few hundred feet down the road.

Land however was appropriated for the wider roadway.
"Note: All land east of the above-mentioned west street line, south of the present south street line of Prospect Street and west of the present west street line of Griswold Street to become part of Folly Brook Boulevard."

Our deed says "Lots number 51 and 52 ...were affected by the building line of the lay-out of the Folly Brook Boulevard as laid out by the Metropolitan District Commission [and]...are subject to said building line..." such that today the apron, sidewalk, and the outer rim of trees on the lawn of 284 Brimfield Road are officially on town/MDC property.

The MDC, as recorded in its April 1, 1935 minutes, approved the recommendation and "on August 9, 1934, voted to make assessment which was published August 16 and 17, 1934. Remonstrances against proposed assessment were received and a public hearing held on these remonstrances September 19, 1934.

"On February 26, 1935, the Bureau of Public Works having failed to agree with the respective parties entitled to damages or liable for betterments met as a court for the assessment of Betterments and Appraisement of Damages... The Metropolitan District...assessed the Benefits and appraised the Damages.

"Resolved: That all the proceedings in the laying out of Folly Brook Boulevard...are hereby established and confirmed...

"Resolved: That the Bureau of Public Works of the Metropolitan District be and it hereby us authorized to proceed with said layout and make and enter into any necessary contracts…"

The resolution passed.

On November 18, 1935 the MDC approved a request to apply for Federal funds to "help finance the construction of sewers...in the Folly Brook valley in Wethersfield."

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Chapter VIII – The Ark and the Gingko Tree

A "Sanborn Fire Insurance Rate Map" prepared in 1930 and an aerial photograph of the Brimfield Gardens area taken in 1934 both show fourteen houses on what was then called Brimfield Road -- the twelve that were built in the 1920's: 237 and 256 in 1920; 245 in 1924; 242 in 1925; 268 in 1926; 248, 253 and 264 in 1927; 236, 263, 267, and 270 in 1928; plus 255 which the town of Wethersfield Appraisal database lists as being built in 1935, and 252 constructed in 1930.
Also shown are the two corner houses: 711 and 721 Wolcott Hill Road built in 1925 and 1926 respectively.



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The twenties were the decade that saw the greatest percentage increase (73% or 3,170 people) ever in Wethersfield’s overall population.
Year ____Population Growth
1900____ 2,637
1910 ____3,148_____ 511___19.3%
1920____ 4,342____1,194___37.9%
1930____ 7,512____3,170___73.0%
1940____9,644____2,132___28.38%
1950___12.533____2,889___29.96%
1960___20.561____8,028___64.05%
1970___26,662____6,101___29.67%
1980___26.013____- 649___- 2.43%
1990___25,651____- 362___- 1.39%
1995___25,161____- 480___- 1.91%
1998___25,095____- 66____- .26%
(wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_U.S._Census_Totals_for_Hartford_County,_Connecticut)

The next growth spurt in our neighborhood occurred during the second half of the 1940s and the early 1950s.
311 Brimfield ST 1944
324 Brimfield ST 1945
275 Brimfield ST 1946
284 Brimfield ST 1946
312 Brimfield ST 1946
280 Brimfield ST 1947
287 Brimfield ST 1947
283 Brimfield ST 1948
306 Brimfield ST 1948
317 Brimfield ST 1948
329 Brimfield ST 1948
302 Brimfield ST 1949
232 Brimfield ST 1950
303 Brimfield ST 1950
318 Brimfield ST 1950
323 Brimfield ST 1950
330 Brimfield ST 1951
338 Brimfield ST 1952

Our house at 284 Brimfield Street (comprised of Brimfield Gardens Lot 51 and a portion of Lot 52) was architected by W.H. Lincoln and plans filed with the town Building Department on May 9, 1946 show a cost of $8,200 plus plumbing and electrical costs of $650 and $175 respectively. Among other specifications the house contains 2 X 6 collar beams and four Lolly columns. It was inspected and approved for occupancy on October 30, 1946 under Permit number 27 for that year. The same basic house plan was also used for the residences at 275, 280, 283, 287, and 306 Brimfield which were all built in 1946 through 1948.

The Kenyons completed what is now the current configuration of 284 Brimfield Road property on September 21, 1953 by acquiring 5 feet of the east end of Brimfield Gardens Lot 50 from James and Hetta Torrey.

The remaining houses in our section of Brimfield Road (#s 214, 241 and 249) were built in 1975 when the Brimfield Gardens Nursery, which was located at 245 Brimfield Road, relocated.

The nursery was established in 1927 and occupied lots number 38, 73, 74 and 75 of Brimfield Gardens Addition. The house at 245 Brimfield Road was built in 1924 and sold by Lucy Isaacson to Edwin Young on March 10, 1924; then from the Young Estate to William A Dobson on September 16, 1924; and to Robert Marshall Jr. on June 15, 1929. It served as home to the Marshall family including Wesley Marshall who still runs the business in its current Rocky Hill, Connecticut location. The enterprise was a mail order purveyor of exotic plants, and a residential landscaper that specialized in rare trees and Japanese Gardens.

Much of their design and planting work was in New York and Long Island, however they did leave their mark on the neighborhood in the form of three trees: a Cedar of Lebanon, said to be the lumber with which Noah’s Ark was built; and two Chinese Gingkos, traditional symbols of longevity.

Appropriate emblems for a neighborhood that helped bring Wethersfield into the twentieth century, and which continues to thrive today.























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Postscript and Bibliography

My research has answered the questions which prompted this exercise plus several others that never would have occurred to me had I not begun this quest. And as such ventures often do it has also opened up new areas for further exploration.

Like some bizarre form of jigsaw puzzle that generates new pieces each time a section is completed, historical research is a self-perpetuating, ongoing quest for all those facts out there somewhere waiting to tell us about their past in how we got to where we are today. And looking for an author to piece the plot of the story together.

Bibliography:

Borrup, Roger "The First 100 Years, Transit to Wethersfield", originally
published in "The Transportation Bulletin" no. 7, September 1969-August
1970. Published by the Connecticut Valley Chapter, Inc. of the National
Railway Historical Society. – Library of Wethersfield Historical Society

Minutes of the Metropolitan District Commission: July 10, 1933;
April 1, 1935; November 18, 1935
The Metropolitan District Commission

“Plan of A Residence Suburb Wethersfield Connecticut”, 1928
Library of Wethersfield Historical Society

“Rate Book List of 1930 – Town of Wethersfield”
Library of Wethersfield Historical Society

“Tax Records – Town of Wethersfield”
Library of Wethersfield Historical Society

1920 State of Connecticut Comptroller’s Report
http://books.google.com/

Sanborn Fire Insurance Rate Map
Library of Wethersfield Historical Society

No Author Credited

“1934 Aerial map” UCONN MAGIC Historical Online Mapping
[Online] Available
magic.lib.uconn.edu

“Connecticut Roads” [Online] Available, http://www.kurumi.com/roads/ct/berlintpk.html

“Historical U.S. Census Totals for Hartford County, Connecticut
[Online] Available http://en.wikipedia.org

“Silas Deane Highway” [Online] Available
http://en.wikipedia.org


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