A.C. Petersen Farms (1940)

A.C. Petersen Farms is a landmark restaurant and creamery at 240 Park Road in West Hartford. The company‘s origins go back to 1914, when Andrew C. Petersen, a Danish immigrant, purchased several milk delivery routes. He soon expanded his business, acquiring the property on Park Road, where he produced milk and ice cream. In 1939, Petersen moved two houses on the site to nearby Washington Circle to make way for the present ice cream parlor and restaurant. Over the years, A.C. Petersen’s would grow as a business to have thirteen locations in the greater Hartford area. These would eventually close, leaving only the original with the Petersen’s name. In 2000, Andrew C. Petersen’s grandson sold the restaurant part of the business to the Rhode Island-based restaurant chain, Newport Creamery, while a group of local businessmen acquired the ice cream plant and continue to produce Petersen’s ice cream. Two years later, the restaurant was acquired by Catherine Denton, who had been A.C. Petersen’s longtime accountant. In 2013, the company acquired a second location in Old Lyme. In 2016, MSN named Petersen’s milkshake the best in Connecticut.

Connor Chapel of Our Lady, University of Saint Joseph (1966)

The University of Saint Joseph in West Hartford is a Roman Catholic coeducational institution of higher education that was founded in 1932 as a college for women. The University‘s Chapel, built in 1965-1966, was the gift of Joseph and Jane Cullen Connor. Joseph passed away two weeks before the ceremonial groundbreaking, which took place on July 16, 1965. Jane broke ground and as she dug in her shovel she prayed “May all who enter this Chapel be saved.” These words are inscribed on the narthex floor inside the main doors. The Connor Chapel of Our Lady has the shape of a cross and the interior focuses on a central raised altar.

Elmwood Community Church (1928)

In 1873, the South District Sunday School was organized to serve the Elmwood section of West Hartford. Within a few years the organization raised funds to erect a chapel. Built in 1876, the interdenominational Elmwood Chapel was located at the corner of New Britain Avenue and Grove Street/South Quaker Lane. Classes were held there on Sunday afternoons followed by services in the evening. After the First World War, attendance at the Chapel was increasing and there was a need for a new house of worship. In April 1921, a new independent Community Church was organized which merged with the earlier Elmwood Chapel Association. The new church would be Congregational, but members of the old Chapel would maintain their denominational affiliation. Funds were raised and work began on the new church, located at 26 Newington Road, in 1926. The corner stone was laid on May 8, 1927 by a Masonic delegation from the Wyllys Lodge No. 99 of West Hartford. The church opened for services in 1928, but parts of the interior and the steeple were not completed for several years. The sanctuary was renovated and rededicated in 1955 and in 1958 the church undertook an expansion program that included the raising of the steeple.

McDonough Hall, University of Saint Joseph (1936)

Saint Joseph’s College, recently renamed the University of Saint Joseph, in West Hartford was founded in 1932 by the Sisters of Mercy, a religious institute of Catholic women. It was the first liberal arts college for women in the Hartford area. Classes were initially held at Mount Saint Joseph Academy, before the college moved to its own campus. Sister Mary Rosa McDonough, the College’s first dean, oversaw construction of the original campus buildings. The Administration and Science Building, erected in 1936, was renamed McDonough Hall in her honor in 1969.

St. Thomas the Apostle Church (1951)

St. Thomas the Apostle Parish, established in November 1920, was the second Catholic parish in West Hartford. Early Masses were held in a portable wooden edifice, located at the southwest corner of Quaker Lane and Boulevard. A basement chapel at 872 Farmington Avenue was dedicated on November 7, 1926. Construction began in 1937 on St. Thomas the Apostle School, located next to the chapel on Dover Road. St. Thomas the Apostle Church was completed with the dedication of the upper church on September 16, 1951.

St. Mark the Evangelist Church (1945)

St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church, 467 South Quaker Lane in West Hartford, was dedicated on September 30, 1945. It replaced the original St. Mark Church on the site, which was destroyed by a fire of suspicious origin on June 24, 1944. Due to the scarciry of building materials during World War Two, that building had been a portable church, a narrow structure with a heating grate running through its center. St. Mark’s Parish Center was dedicated in 1971. As part of the Archdiocese of Hartford’s reorganization of parishes earlier this year, St. Mark’s merged with two other West Hartford parishes, St. Brigid and St. Helena, to form the new Saint Gianna Parish.

St. James’s Episcopal Church, West Hartford (1962)

St. James Episcopal Church was organized in West Hartford in 1843. It was named St. James by Rev. Dr. George Burgess because St. John’s Church had just been erected in Hartford and Dr. Burgess felt that St. John’s brother, St. James, should also be honored. In 1855, the parish erected a church on the west side of Goodman Green. The congregation had limited growth for many years because West Hartford was long a rural community and most residents were members of the Congregational or Baptist churches. Many Episcopalians were drawn to St. John’s Church, which moved from Main Street in Hartford to Farmington Avenue, just across city line in West Hartford, in 1909. The congregation of St. James Church experienced rapid growth in the 1930s and 1940s and eventually outgrew its original church building. The parish soon undertook a three fold building program, purchasing a rectory in 19149, building a parish house in 1954 and constructing a new church, at 1018 Farmington Avenue, in 1962. The church was designed by Jeter and Cook of Hartford and Standard Builders was the general contractor.