Walnut Hill Park, New Britain

Walnut Hill Park, New Britain – Jerry Dougherty

The city of New Britain is located in central Connecticut and is a part of Hartford County. Once known as the “Great Swamp” in the Berlin section of Farmington, in 1754 the colony approved the area as a new parish and named it New Briton. By the beginning of the 19th century, New Britain had made its mark as an emerging industrial village. Nicknamed the Hardware City, New Britain has been home to the Stanley Works, the American Hardware Corporation, and various other large manufacturing companies. By 1913, the American Hardware Corporation was Connecticut’s largest employer with 12,000 workers. Today, New Britain is a working-class community known for its large Polish population. In 2010, Stanley Works purchased Black & Decker and it remains headquartered in the city.

Featured

Peddler E.H. Farrell with his cart, 1910

New Britain’s Yankee Peddlers Boost 18th-century Economy

While the rural economy of the North in the 18th century focused on local exchanges of goods within a community, Yankee peddlers used their mobility to bring finished products directly to the consumer. …[more]

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Places

New Britain Public Library. “Local History Room,” 2012. Link.
“New Britain Historical Society,” 2013. Link.
“New Britain Industrial Museum,” 2017. Link.
“New Britain Museum of American Art,” 2017. Link.

Documents

Stanley Works Inc. “8 Garages and Their Stanley Garage Hardware.” The Works, 1919. Winterthur Museum Library. Link.
Woodford, E. M. “Map of the Town of New Britain, Hartford County, Conn.” Philadelphia, PA: Richard Clark, 1851. Connecticut History Online. Link.
Connecticut State Library Digital Collections. “New Britain - WPA Architectural Survey,” 2015. Link.
“New Britain Collection.” Connecticut Digital Archive, n.d. Link.
O.H. Bailey & Company. “View of New Britain, Conn.” Milwaukee, WI: Bailey & Company, 1875. University of Connecticut Libraries, Map and Geographic Information Center - MAGIC. Link.

Books

Fowler, Herbert. A History of New Britain. New Britain,  CT: New Britain Historical Society, 1960.
Larson, Kenneth. A Walk Around Walnut Hill, New Britain, Connecticut: An Architectural and Historical Survey in Photographs, Drawings, Maps, and Text of the Buildings and Sites in the Area Surrounding Walnut Hill. Brooklyn,  NY: Kalarson, 1975.
Muirhead, George R. Central Connecticut State University. Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 1999.
Camp, David. History of New Britain, with Sketches of Farmington and Berlin, Connecticut. 1640-1889. New Britain, CT: W.B. Thomson & Company, 1889. Link.
Andrews, Alfred. Memorial. Genealogy, and Ecclesiastical History [of First Church, New Britain, Conn.] to Which Is Added an Appendix, with Explanatory Notes, and a Full Index. Chicago, IL: A.H. Andrews, 1867. Link.
Palmer, Arlene. New Britain. Dover,  NH: Arcadia, 1999.
Shepard, James. New Britain Patents and Patentees: With a List of New Britain Patents Prior to 1901, Arranged Alphabetically as to Patentees. New Britain, CT: J. Shepard, 1901. Link.
Thibodeau, Patrick. New Britain: The City of Invention: An Illustrated History. Chatsworth, CA: Windsor Publications, 1989.
Garabedian, Jennie. New Britain’s Armenian Community. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2008.
Shea, Jonathan D., and Barbara Proko. The Polish Community of New Britain. Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2005.
Tryon, Lillian Hart, and Mortimer Warren. The Story of New Britain, Connecticut. New Britain, CT: Esther Stanley chapter, D.A.R., 1925. Link.