West Hartford’s ‘Thursday Throwback’

Test your knowledge of West Hartford history with this ‘Thursday Throwback,’ courtesy of the Noah Webster House and West Hartford Historical Society.

By Ronni Newton

It’s Throwback Thursday!

We got much more reaction to last week’s image (see right, and in large size at the end of the article) than we did  for the previous week. Everyone must prefer the winter scenes, although I think we will need to see flowers, grass, and swimming pools pretty soon to remain hopeful that the snow will someday melt.

Connie Reder had the only comment posted directly to the story:  “At first I thought they were cutting ice blocks, but not sure why they would haul them up that ramp for storage. Perhaps the elevated shed contained sand or salt and the wheeled wagon at the bottom of the ramp was used to bring down the loads for spreading on icy roads.”

There were a number of comments posted on Facebook: “I think this is gathering ice from Trout Brook. There was an ice house at the NW corner of Trout Brook Drive and Farmington Avenue. And, I think there was also a pond farther north where they also gathered ice,” commented Lisa Petersen.

Rob Rowlson agreed that the image was of ice gathering, but thought the location was Wood Pond.

John Hardy wins the creative/witty award for the week: “A ramp to reach the top of the snow pile in the Bishops Corner parking lot.” We had a photo of that towering snow pile several days ago, and that ramp doesn’t look quite tall enough to reach the top!

Ray Petersen commented on Facebook with the following: “Cutting ice and using the ‘elevator’ to haul blocks of ice up into the storage warehouse,” and also posted a photo of a 1907 calendar from the Trout Brook Ice & Feed Company.

Those are all great comments and guesses, but the winners are the husband and wife team of the Petersens, and we love the image of the calendar, too! Although Wood Pond was owned by the Trout Brook Ice & Feed Company, this image was more likely of the ice house Lisa referenced. The official description we received from the Noah Webster House & West Hartford Historical Society was: “At least they used to have a use for all of the ice! The Trout Brook Ice & Feed was located in the Center in the late 1800s.”

This week’s image is not one that can easily be identified, but the expression on the woman’s face (image at right and in larger size below) is certainly one that many of us can identify with every time we walk outside these days. Unless you happen to know who this is, and when/where it was taken, and guesses are certainly welcome, we would love to see what kind of captions you can create.

Please add your ideas below.

Thank you to the Noah Webster House & West Hartford Historical Society for providing us with the images. For more information about the organization, visit www.noahwebsterhouse.org.

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