Historian Jeff Murray takes a look into West Hartford’s past to uncover some surprising information, stir up some memories, or reflect on how much life has changed – or hasn’t changed at all. Enjoy this week’s ‘From West Hartford’s Archives’ …
By Jeff Murray
The Burt farmhouse stood on Selden Hill on the south side of Buena Vista Road. The owner of the house, Linus Burt, entered the news in West Hartford quite explosively in the spring of 1894, soon after they moved to the area, when a former farm employee broke into the house late at night and attempted to kill him. The Hartford Courant tells of the attack by revolver and then, when that was unsuccessful, by hatchet, which was held by Ernest Driggs, who was arrested and sentenced to seven years in prison.
Born in 1839 in Massachusetts, Linus Burt was twice married, first to Mary Allyn, who died just four years after their marriage in 1862, and then to Cornelia Humphrey, who gave birth to their three children Frederick, Mabel, and Cora when they lived in Farmington. When they moved to West Hartford in the early 1890s, the children were coming of age and would soon branch out.
The first to marry was their son Frederick, who rented the Noah Webster House with his wife for a number of years after 1896. He went into business with the prominent builder Henry A. B. Day as Burt & Day, buying up the LeMay farm on Farmington Avenue. The two laid out Westland Avenue and LeMay Street in 1900 and built the first houses on them. Burt would later return to Buena Vista until World War I.
Meanwhile, Linus’s eldest daughter, Mabel, married Wellington E. Howe, a dairyman, in November 1895. After the birth of their daughter, Wellington built a house at 141 Buena Vista Road (which is still standing) in 1898 on the west end. The Howes and Burts strengthened their link in the spring of 1907 when Mabel’s younger sister, Cora, married Wellington’s brother Arthur, who was working as a clerk at Myron J. Burnham’s grocery store in West Hartford Center.
After the marriage, Arthur went through a series of moves to enter into and expand his own milk business, like his brother. In 1912, when Wellington left the business, he sold his milk route and house to Arthur, who also bought out the milk route of the Mountain Road farmer John Ellsworth. At the start of 1913, therefore, Arthur B. Howe had one of the largest milk routes in the town. Wellington meanwhile went into poultry raising and then the delivery business in West Hartford. It was quite a busy few years for the Burt sisters.
Map of the area in 1909 – the Burt farm can be seen on the left
For the two decades that the Burt family lived on Buena Vista Road, the surrounding land had been owned by the Selden family, specifically Henry H. Selden. In 1912, around the same time that his two daughters and sons-in-law were shifting around the milk business and establishing their own farm on the west end of Buena Vista Road, Linus, now 73 years old, moved out of town and sold the 100-acre farm to his neighbor Henry Selden. It is unclear from a glance when the Burt farmhouse was removed, but it stood near the current Selden Hill Drive, which was laid out in the late 1940s alongside Brookmoor Road.
Cora Burt Howe continued to live with her husband at 141 Buena Vista Road until her death in April 1949. Cora had used the house through the 1930s into the 1940s as a tourist house and based on newspaper articles on the continued approval of the town, tourists were accommodated there until she died.
Soon after, Howland Road was laid out immediately west of the house, making it probable that the name was inspired by the family. Howland Road connected to Selden Hill Drive when it opened in 1954. The Burts had moved to West Hartford from Farmington soon after their children were born and the marriage of Cora and Mabel to the Howe brothers allowed them to establish a presence in the west end of town, where the milk business could be consolidated and expanded.
The development of the Howe tourist house and farm at the west side of Buena Vista Road helped create the conditions for Howland Road and the sale of the Burt farm to the neighboring Seldens brought that historical family much desired land during an era that endlessly needed it for real estate development, especially after World War II.
While Selden Hill is known for the significant presence and influence of the Selden family, the Burt farmhouse is a reminder of the simple idea that other families also contributed to the development of Buena Vista, even if the land they owned was divided and sold away more than a century ago.
Approximate location of the farmhouse today on the south side of Buena Vista Road. Google Street View
Jeff Murray was born and raised in West Hartford and has been involved with the Noah Webster House & West Hartford Historical Society since 2011 when he was a high school student and won the Meyer Prize for his essay on local history. Jeff routinely volunteers as local history researcher uncovering information for numerous museum programs such as the West Hartford House Tour and West Hartford Hauntings. Jeff works as a data analyst at Pratt & Whitney.
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Jeff Murray, thanks so much for your informative and interesting articles! My spouse and I live in the Burt house on Westland Avenue. It was still in the Burt family when we bought it in late 1999. We would love to talk to you more about it!