Connecticut Towns and Cities:
How They Grew

Expansion into Suburban Living

As the cities became more and more crowded towards the end of the 19th century, many people longed to escape to rural areas. As transportation improved, people had options. They could still keep their jobs in the city, but not have to live there. First trolley lines expanded farther and farther into the country, providing access to Colonial villages and mill towns that began to be transformed into commuter suburbs. After 1900, as the automobile made it even easier for people to travel, new real estate developments were constructed especially to provide such commuters with their own houses, lawns and gardens.

< At the turn of the century, Farmington Avenue in West Hartford is a dirt road, with very little around it. Some utility poles and wires line the road, but for the most part it still looks like a country town.

Unknown
Trolley and horse cabs on Central Row
Hartford, ca. 1900
Photo CD: 0555 File: Img0099.pcd

< Trolleys, such as this one, with the destination of ‘West Hartford,” provided transportation to nearby towns, enabling workers to move farther away, while still keeping their jobs in the city. Trolley lines reached out in all directions—to Farmington, Wethersfield, Windsor, and Manchester. A trolley line crossed the covered bridge across the Connecticut River and the Bulkeley Bridge which replaced it after it burned in 1895.

Unknown
Construction at West Hartford plot
West Hartford, 1920
Photo CD: 2822 File: Img0060.pcd

< By the 1920s, real estate firms had begun building whole neighborhoods at once. While previously individual houses had been constructed for specific individuals, now houses were constructed on speculation, with the knowledge that they would find ready purchasers. Teams of horses continued to be used in construction well into the 20th century.

< Land was cleared, streets were laid out, houses were put up in rows, and ready-made neighborhoods appeared. This development in West Hartford even included driveways and garages, suggesting that the automobile was the primary means of transportation for the people who lived there. While once people lived in close proximity to their place of work—in rooms above a store, or in worker housing adjacent to a factory—by the 1920s many people traveled many miles to work, setting out early in the morning and returning home in the evening.

Link to other essays in this Journey:

>> Introduction: Connecticut Towns and Cities: How They Grew
>> Early Towns
>> Town Greens
>> Factory Villages
>> Transportation Hubs

>> Guideposts
>> Suggestions for further reading