Bloomfield

Throughout Bloomfield, the name that appears nearly everywhere is Wintonbury-Wintonbury Flower Shop, Wintonbury Avenue, Wintonbury Library, and so forth. There is a reason. The town was once a section within three towns, Windsor, Farmington, and Simsbury, and took as its name one part of each: Win-ton-bury. Wintonbury began as an agricultural town, whose farmers developed trades that not only helped each other but also helped the town develop and prosper. Among the businesses resulting from these trades were the Bidwell sawmill, the Gillette gristmill, the Augustus Whiton wagon factory, and the Humphrey brothers’ sash and blind factory. Schools and homes of the time were made of bricks from the Eggleston family’s brick-making kilns. Although the name was changed to Bloomfield when the town was incorporated, the city has held firmly to its past while still moving forward.Bloomfield is a compilation of nineteenth- and twentieth-century photographs showing the lives of those who most influenced and characterized the communities of Wintonbury and Bloomfield. It is a pictorial history that revisits the early days, when industry was just beginning, and more recent times, as the town thrived with a progressive educational system and became the home of Connecticut General Insurance Company. While enjoying its closeness to Hartford, Bloomfield has developed a unique culture of its own, which is revealed in this fascinating history.