Hartford’s West End Remembered
The Architectural History and Resources Committee is excited to present a series of memories of living in Hartford’s historic West End. Inspired by Carolyn West’s memoir of living on Kenyon Street that she presented at Porchfest, we are assembling some of the “histories” West Enders have experienced during their years in the neighborhood. These will be chronicled and distributed one post via monthly email and, hopefully, compile enough stories for a printed piece.
We invite you to join this project by sharing some of your own “West End History.” Photos would also be of great interest. There is no minimum or maximum length to your contribution – even one anecdote of a significant event can be of great importance in connecting our collective history. Please send your content to: ahr@wecahartford.org.
West End Histories:
Vol. VI: Mollie Abend (October, 2025)
Mollie and her late husband Al Abend have owned the Colonial-style brick house at 153 Oxford Street since 1982, but for nearly 70 years it was home to the Beardsley Family.
According to Beardsley family legend, the house (built in 1903) was a wedding present to John and Jane Beardsley from Jane’s dad. Her dad, a masonry contractor, had helped to build Mark Twain’s house on Farmington Avenue, so there was no question that his daughter’s house would be of brick, too.
In 1909, “Grandpa” decided his grandchildren – Guy, John Jr., and Roxanne – needed a bigger yard, so he bought the undeveloped lot on North Beacon Street that backed up to the Beardsley’s home; and that is how 153 Oxford Street came to have a double-deep yard.
The pictures presented here were taken in 1907 and are from the Beardsley family scrapbook. They were given to the Abends by Guy Beardsley.
History written by Albert Abend around 2004.
Stories
When Guy Jr and John came to visit in the 1980’s they told stories and brought photos including photos of the house, father, father-in-law, and first born son. (See attached) Some of the stories were about –
Why is there a marble shower in the back hall?
Guy Jr went to Yale in the 1920’s where he became used to the newest trend in health, the shower, which first became popular for residences in the early 1900’s. When he came home extolling it’s virtues one was built off of the 2nd floor bathroom, in the new addition to the house.
Where they hid the liquor during prohibition when they went to NH, and where they got it –
They told the story of how the Beardsley’s friends and neighbors were the Heublein’s on Prospect Avenue. Through prohibition the Beardsley’s continued to be able to get liquor. In order to keep it safely out of sight when they went to NH for the Summer they would hide it in the forced air heating ducts in the Oxford St home. They sons told us it was their job to remember to retrieve the liquor from the ducts before the heat was turned on.
How and where they climbed the brick of the house for sneaking in and out –
As youngsters, when they wanted to sneak out of the house they would climb out a second floor window onto a flat roof, and then climb down the outside of the brick corners.
Timeline
1903 – Land purchased from James Cone by John Hills for $100, who gave the property to his daughter Jane Hills Beardsley.
1903 – House built for Guy and Jane Hills Beardsley as a wedding present. Jane’s father (John Hills) was a masonry contractor. One of the projects was for the Mark Twain house on Farmington Ave. The house was designed by noted architect Cortland Luce. He designed the West Hartford Vanderbilt Mansion that was on West Hill as well as several houses on Walbridge Road.
1909 – Grandfather John Hills didn’t think his grandchildren (Guy Jr, John, and Roxanne) had enough room to play so they purchased and expanded the back yard from James Cone for $1,000, which was given the address of 54x North Beacon Street.
1924 – Addition and renovations:
- Removed back of house to create a large addition
- Rooms were reconfigured, and staircases and doorways were changed
- Moved back stairs to create large butler’s pantry
- Created a larger kitchen
- Added 3 sun porches – two on second floor, one on first
- Added a powder room
- Added a back staircase from the basement all the way to the third floor
- Added a full bath off the primary bedroom
- Enlarged and extended basement
- Added walk-in Linen pantry on second floor
- Added the marble shower on the second floor
1926 – Back garage added and a brick wall with a fountain was added, connecting both garages. (See attached)
1960 – Guy died and Jane continued to lived here until 1972, when the house passed to children Joshua, Mary, Joseph, and Clarence Nelson.
1977 – House to Frank and Deb Sauta-Donato
1982 – House to Mollie and Al Abend
1980’s – Guy Jr and John visited from New Hampshire. Brought photos
2017 – Grandchildren stopped by – Sandy Niles, Sue, David Beardsley
2018 – Combined 153 Oxford and 54x North Beacon properties into one address – 153 Oxford St.
Renovations since 1982:
- Removed mud room and door from NW corner of kitchen, added bay window
- Gutted and renovated kitchen twice
- Added central air conditioning
Vol. V: Mary LaPorte (September, 2025)
This is the story of our house. In the spring of 1976, we had decided to purchase our first home and were actively looking. We had been disappointed in several homes we looked at because our budget was so tight. When we read the advertisement in the West Hartford edition of The Yankee Flyer (a weekly print version of today’s Craigslist) we were intrigued because the advertisement was in a non-traditional site for real estate listings in our neighborhood of choice, Hartford’s West End. We were familiar with the West End. My husband was a graduate of Trinity and the Hartford Seminary and I had lived for several years on Sherman Street. We were currently living in the South End but really liked the West End and the proximity to Elizabeth Park.
The house was advertised as a Hartford West End single family to be purchased “as is.” But there was no address. We called and the agent gave us the address and we arranged to go through the house. We were surprised when we saw it – and disappointed. We should have known that the low price of the house probably meant that it was not one of those gorgeous West End homes we were thinking of. The house was painted a peeling battleship gray with turquoise trim. The front porch was completely enclosed with Florida type wind-out windows. The wooden screens were falling apart with screens hanging down. The back yard was completely covered with asphalt.
Inside was equally discouraging. The house was an active rooming house and had been since the 1940s when it was considered patriotic to get a license and house workers for the massive Pratt and Whitney expansion during WWII. Eight tenants lived there. The plaster was falling off the laths in many rooms, some of the ceilings were canvas and were sagging badly, and much of the trim was covered with painted brown circles with dots in the middle. (See if you can locate the last remnants of those circles – we left some hidden!) The kitchen had rusted metal cabinets and a linoleum counter that was peeling. The master bedroom was locked and we could not get in to see it and its windows were painted black. Every door had a Yale lock. There were firewalls and doors at every level and the living room was two rooms and a hall separated by recently installed sheetrock. The house smelled of cat.
I could not see any possibility but my husband could. After we left and I was walking ahead of him I turned and said, “well, that was a major disappointment.” He took me by the arm and turned me around and marched me back into the house. This time, he insisted that I really look at what was there under that shabby state. I noted the original wood detailing and brass hardware and lighting, the beautiful wood floors and the potential for a lovely home. She was a shabby lady that really just needed to have love and care. Our engineering report indicated that the house was “sound” and the owner (who had recently inherited the property) had the exterior painted at her expense because she had been planning to do that anyway.
Now it is forty years later and we have loved this house and it has given so much to us. We worked on this house for many years. I learned to plaster and tape and spackle. We learned to paint. And my husband, not a particularly handy man, was the first to take a sledgehammer to poorly installed sheetrock walls. Our first major undertaking was the restoration of the front porch – our old Yankee neighbor who had lived across from our home his entire life wrote us a formal “thank you” note when that was completed. I found the newel post for the second floor stair in the incinerator ashes in our garage and replaced the missing balusters with some I found when the Hartford Seminary tore down a dormitory of approximately the same age as our home. We have renovated the kitchen twice and upgraded all the systems. We learned through our mistakes when to call on expert help.
We raised three children in this home and welcomed all of their friends here. For many years, my husband ran his business from a home office in our back den (which had been the children’s’ play room). At times, we welcomed wonderful law school students to live with us on our third floor and that space proved very useful when, one by one, our teenagers moved up there after deciding they needed more “private” space. We celebrated holidays, birthdays, and weddings in this home and welcomed our first grandchild. We loved our neighbors and our neighborhood. We have life long friends here and they have enriched our lives. The West End always was, and remains, a special place.
This house has become too large for us and we are moving to a smaller home but this will be in our hearts forever and we hope that the future owners will enjoy it and care for it as we have for the last forty years.
Vol. IV: Karen Will (July, 2025)
Evelyn Wallace Preston, whose 1978 bequest created the fund in her name that supports outdoor music events in Hartford, actually lived in the West End in our house on Girard Avenue.
Evelyn was the only daughter of Major Edward V. Preston, a well-known Travelers Insurance executive who had been a paymaster in the Civil War, having reportedly met Abraham Lincoln. He and his wife Clara had only one remaining child after the death of their son as a young man. So they took on as a member of their household a young woman from western Massachusetts named Mary Yale Bettis.
When Major Preston died of pneumonia in 1921, he was so well-known and beloved that all Travelers offices were closed at noon the day after his death! He left his considerable estate to the family, including Miss Bettis, for their support during their lifetimes. He stipulated that at their deaths the estate would be dedicated to a fund for outdoor concerts in Hartford during the summer months since he himself had derived much pleasure from such events.
Clara Preston died in 1930, and Evelyn died in 1955 while living in the Girard Avenue house, leaving Mary Bettis as the sole beneficiary of the estate and resident of the house, with its 4 servants: cook, housekeeper, gardener and chauffeur! She lived on until 1978 after which the estate, which had grown considerably, was released for the outdoor music fund.
We knew Miss Bettis because her physical therapist and frequent companion Lenora Grizzell (we called her Squeek from an early childhood nickname!) was a family friend who had known my mother, Ellen Payne Paullin, in their early Kansas days. We occasionally visited here in this house when Ellen was working at Hartford College for Women across the street. It was still elegantly furnished, but with a simple very basic kitchen and a fine butler’s pantry as befitted the period when the house was built, around 1910.
When we decided to come to Hartford from Philadelphia so Phil could help develop Clemens Place, we began house-hunting in the area. In the midst of this process, Miss Bettis’ health declined and she died in the autumn of 1978. So we were able to purchase from the estate the house we had known and enjoyed! Our older 2 daughters, Kayden and Bryn, started at Noah Webster School and our 3rd daughter Colleen (Coe) was born here.
It’s wonderful to still have good friends from those young family days, even though many are downsizing and leaving the neighborhoods. The best part of this tale is that Coe and Craig and their 3 sons live around the corner on Oxford Street, beginning their own story of happy family life in the West End!
Vol. III: Steve Fournier (June, 2025)
One of my earliest memories is of the two white lions that guard the door of 422 Farmington Avenue. If you’re at the corner of Owen Street, where my aunt and uncle had an apartment 75 years ago, the image is really pretty impressive, which is probably why it’s been with me since I was little.
What we now call “Clemens Place” is prominent in my mind’s eye. The lions I admired as a toddler I visited every morning as a teenager, delivering the Hartford Courant to customers on the Avenue and on Owen and Lorraine Streets. A few years later, married with a baby due, Ruth and I moved into an apartment at the corner of Owen and Farmington, and we could see the lions from our living room window.
People were still calling the neighborhood “Little Hollywood” when we lived on the Avenue in 1971 and 1972. What became Clemens Place had a longstanding reputation as a neighborhood where eccentricity was tolerated. It was still an upscale spot when I delivered papers there, but it had undergone some deterioration over the succeeding years and was on the decline when we lived there. We’ve been settled on Tremont Street for 53 years, and we don’t wander the neighborhood much now, but I still give the lions a second look when I pass.
Vol. II: Linda Proctor (May, 2025)
In the early 1970’s the West End Players organization was born. Each year the group put on a play for any and all to see. Unfortunately, no video tapes are around but some photos still exist.
The first play was “Guys and Dolls”. The cast consisted of West Enders or all ages who volunteered their time and talents to perform, make costumes, do graphic art for posters and playbills, gather props and so on. Usually one West Ender produced the play. (Robin Gebrian did so for a couple of plays.) The director and choreographer were hired from outside the neighborhood and were paid a stipend. Sound equipment was rented. It was quite a commitment and practices went on for months with performances on a couple of weekends.
The plays were performed on stages throughout Hartford and West Hartford such as St. Mary’s Home, an auditorium in one of the insurance companies on Asylum Avenue, in a church, and others, The whole production of each play required lots of time, energy and enthusiasm of which there was plenty in the neighborhood.
The players were known for their parties after performances at various West End homes, gatherings at The Keg (now The Wood-n-Tap), and several romantic affairs.
Other plays besides “Guys and Dolls” included:
Anything Goes
Little Mary Sunshine
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
The Music Man
George Washington Slept Here
and and original play by a West End author
For The Music Man, neighborhood children played their instruments.
When the play productions stopped, there were two talent shows were held in the science center at the Hartford College for Women. Various performances were given including singing, comedy routines, reciting poetry and dancing. Paul Tieger and Pat Proctor emceed the shows for two years. Beverages were served in the back of the room to large audiences.
And then the music died…
Vol. I: Timothy Fisher (April, 2025)
My family (parents Clyde & Alice Fisher, brother Andrew and I), moved to 76 North Beacon in August 1969.
We were coming from Santurce, Puerto Rico, where my father had worked as a consultant for the Commonwealth government planning board, but we were originally from Connecticut. Andy and I enrolled at Hartford Public High School, where I graduated in 1971 (just had our 50th reunion!) and Andy in 1973.
Hartford High was led at the time by its Principal, Duncan Yetman. He was a magnificent person, and was the first true leader who I ever experienced in person. Throughout my life since I have often sought to emulate his character.
The family soon got involved in community affairs. Andy was in the class of first student members (non-voting) of the Hartford Board of Education, an idea sponsored by then Board President Sandy Klebanoff. Our Dad was active in WECA and went on to be President, and was on later the Elizabeth Park Conservancy board. I was active in student government and Vietnam Moratorium organizing, and served as “Junior Mayor” of the City of Hartford in 1970. A few years ago I got to have a personal reunion with Ann Uccello, who was the actual (!) mayor at that time.
The student activist stuff got me in trouble once. January 1970 marked the second year of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday since his assassination. It was not yet a holiday in Hartford or to my knowledge anywhere else. The school held an assembly to honor his memory, but several students interrupted it to call for a walk-out in protest of the absence of greater recognition. I decided that the courage of my convictions required that I join them, which I did. I still have a copy of the Registered Mail letter to my parents explaining that I was suspended from school for a week in punishment.
I was out of town for college and law school, but then moved back to 8 Fern Street after graduation, before buying the house at 76 Kenyon in 1982. Years later I got the job at Dean of the UConn Law School, which occasioned my long hoped-for move back into the West End, where I now live on Scarborough.
Coincidentally, when I was at Hartford High I sometimes studied in the stately Reading Room of the Hartford Seminary’s library. That was the very same room where years later I gave a speech that seems to have induced the faculty to vote for me as their next Dean in 2013.
It has been wonderful to be back in this great neighborhood. Amazingly, it still feels the same as it did 55 years ago.