Adjourned town meeting held

10/24/1887 |

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An adjourned town meeting was held, during which the committee on the sale of the old town farm presented its annual report for the year ending October 1, 1887.

More details

The report including the following information:

An accounting of revenue and disbursements for the preceding year.
A report that five lots had recently been sold, bringing the total number of lots sold to 34.
The sewer line had been installed on Ashley Street.
Ashley Street had been partially graded.
Hiram G. Loomis had prepared a profile and grades of the streets that would cut across the old town farm property, and his proposal had been submitted to and approved by the Hartford Board of Street Commissioners.
The grade of an unopened section of Sigourney Street, as it proceeded northward across the old town farm, would carry it over the Connecticut Western railroad track, “should the street ever be continued to Albany avenue.”
Loomis mapped out Sargeant Street, but it had not been graded or had a sewer line installed.
The committee would begin that work during the year October 1888 through September 1889, in the event there was a “fair sale of lots on Ashley street,” but as of now, there had been no inquiry for lots on Sargeant Street.

And then there's this

Following the reading and acceptance of the report:

A resolution appropriating $4,000 for the purchase of additional property for the new town farm passed.
A resolution paying of the debt accrued through the building of the new town farm, using funds on hand in the new town farm building fund, passed.

Why this is important

This report gives an account of the work done toward selling the building lots on the old town farm property.
It also constitutes the earliest reference to Sargeant Street that I have so far found.

The report stated that the “removal of the old town buildings will open some desirable lots.” Last year, the committee anticipated that material from at least the old main building would be carried to the new town farm by January 1, 1887, so it’s unclear if the demolition of the old buildings was now complete, or whether it remained unfinished.

The past recalled

Annual reports on the actions of the Town of Hartford were submitted on October 22, 1886.

The future foretold

Tomorrow, the Courant will publish an opinion on how the streets have been graded:

The grade on Sigourney Street will carry it over the Connecticut Western track: “That is as it should be.”
Huntington Street and other cross streets have been “cut down several feet, thus losing all the material advantage of position, and the streets have been “fixed and built upon at a grade that must make trouble by and by.”
In conclusion: “To go to work deliberately to create such crossings, in videw of the present state of feeling, is something that would be inscrutable in anything but public affairs. No private business would be treated so.”

On July 25, 1888, the Board of Selectmen will lead an invited group on a tour of the new town farm.

Neat little tidbit

The new land that the committee wanted to buy for the new town farm was:

A piece of the old Brinley farm, for $3,200.
A piece of land owned by Margaret Goodwin, for $800.

The report indicated that the current new town farm property had been purchased for $150 per acre, which was $50 more per acre than what it would pay for the piece of the old Brinley farm.

For the record

Based on the payments for work on the old town farm property,

Sylvester Bissell worked on the Ashley Street sewer line, laying bricks and installing catch basins.
J. Simson inspected the sewer line.
J. H. Brocklesby provided legal services.

Sources

Unattributed. “The old and new town farms,” Hartford Courant, October 25, 1887, page 1.

Unattributed. “The town farm lay-outs,” Hartford Courant, October 25, 1887, page 4.

Old Town Farm

History

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