Manchester Historical Society
Old Manchester Museum, 126 Cedar Street
Open House
Saturday, June 4, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Visit with hosts Art Pongratz and Bob Kanehl. Exhibits of photos and artifacts of our town's schools, industries, home entertainment, and the Manchester Sports Hall of Fame. Also open on Saturday, June 11, for Connecticut Open Museum Day, 11:00 to 3:00.
Celebrate Manchester
"Celebrate Manchester" has created this brochure of free events from June 4 to June 12.

Please come to our Historical Society open houses on Saturday, June 11 from 11:00 to 3:00: Homestead, Old Manchester Museum, History Center, Keeney School, Woodbridge Farmstead, plus Pitkin Glass Works, the Fire Museum, Lutz Museum.

Also, on other days during the week: Flag Day ceremony, town-wide tag sale, hikes, concert in Center Memorial Park, Arts in the Park, barbecue at the Elks Club for veterans, a dance at the Senior Center, live music Downtown, and more.
Manchester quiz. Can you answer these questions?
Who is this man? What building is named after him?
Hint: That's the Town Hall in the background of the plaque.

 Scroll down for answers.
History Center, 175 Pine Street.
Then & Now exhibit
Then & Now showcases the history of Manchester from pre-Colonial times to the present. Free. Donations welcome. Open to the public Wednesday through Friday, from 10:00 to 2:00 and Saturday 12:00 noon to 4:00.
Our friends at the Manchester Sculpture Project invite you to a free guided walk and photo op
Selfies with Joe McCluskey
Saturday, June 4, at 10:00 a.m. The public is invited to a free walk in the Highland Park area of Manchester to visit the Joe McCluskey sculpture and to take a selfie with Joe (or have a Sculpture Committee member take your picture). The half-mile walk, historic commentary, and photo op will take about one hour total. Guests will learn more about the Manchester sculpture project, which honors residents who contributed to the Manchester community and its history. The event is one of the many Connecticut Trails Day events taking place June 4 and 5. Meet at the bus company parking lot on Glen Road: from the intersection of Spring Street and Glen Road, take a right past the brick mill buildings to the lot. Town Historian, Susan Barlow, will lead the walk, which is in the Case Brothers National Historic District.
Also, on Saturday, June 11, the Sculpture Project hosts a miniature golf tournament. Fun for all ages. Details and to register: Mini-Golf at the Mar-Lea.
Free concert at the Manchester Bicentennial Band Shell.
Thursday, June 9 at 7:00 p.m. The Manchester Historical Society will present “Spring in Concert,” with music provided by the South Windsor Community Band. The Band Shell is located at 70 Bidwell Street, Manchester, on the MCC campus. Bring lawn chairs. Option to bring a picnic supper.
Special schedule for the Woodbridge Farmstead 2022 open houses:
  • Connecticut Open House Day, Saturday, June 11, 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. See the Visitor Center with displays showing some of the history of the Manchester Green area. Take a self-guided tour through our 18th century barn and a guided tour of our 1830s farmhouse. Refreshments will be available, and some games set up for the children. Submit a name for our new display cow in the old barn. A Woodbridge Farmstead tee shirt will be given in July to the person whose suggested name is picked for our cow.
  • Subsequently, our second and fourth Sunday open houses will run from June 26 through October 23.
The Farmstead is located at Manchester Green, 495 Middle Turnpike East. Parking is available at the Manchester Senior Center, along the street in front of the farmstead, and off Woodbridge Street behind the barn and through the gate. Please be careful entering and exiting.
Cheney Homestead, 106 Hartford Road
Threads & Strings
A weaving and live music event for all ages
Sunday, June 12 , from 12:00 noon to 4:00 p.m.
Weaving Threads • Weavers from the Hartford Artisans Weaving Center will show their weaving skills and share information about local weaving classes. • Along with demonstration of thread spinning, you will have a chance to try your own hands on loom and wheel.
Musical Strings • The Connecticut Classical Guitar Society and local harpists will share their music and tell about learning opportunities. • Try your own hands on a harp.
Handweaving • “Historical Techniques and Samples” with a reproduction of an Electa Cheney reproduction 1820s flannel in progress. • Hear a talk about the beauty and complexity of historical handwoven cloth.
Tour the 1785 Homestead, gardens, 1751 Keeney Schoolhouse and learn about Manchester, the Cheney family and Early American life.
Suggested donation $5 per person / $15 per family
Homestead also open on Connecticut Museum Day, Saturday, June 11, 11:00 to 3:00. Free.
June television show
The Historical Society television show airs at noon and 8:00 p.m. on Saturdays throughout this month -- "Floyd Welch Remembers Pearl Harbor,” an 84-minute television show interviewing the late Navy veteran Floyd Welch, at the time of the recording, the last living Connecticut survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The Manchester Elks honored Floyd at a lunch on December 7, 2017. Floyd Welch passed away in August 2020 at the age of 99. In the recording, Floyd reminisces about the Pearl Harbor attack, and also about the battles he was in throughout World War II. The show airs on Cox cable channel 15 on Saturdays, and runs on all the Saturdays of the month. The show changes each month. This Channel 15 broadcasts in Manchester, Glastonbury, South Windsor, Wethersfield, Rocky Hill, and Newington. Some previous local-history shows can be borrowed at Mary Cheney Library. You can watch this month's show on the Public Access website "Floyd Welch" show.You can watch some of our previous shows by selecting "Manchester Program Schedule" (the second tab) on the local Public Access website and on the next screen, type Historical into the search box.Unfortunately, during the pandemic, the cable TV studio and equipment are unavailable to the public, so we will not be able to make new TV shows for a while.
Requesting tavern photos, mannequins, and volunteers!
For a project, Society president, Jack Prior, asks for photos of Manchester taverns. Thanks to Bruce Anderson and family for this 1940s view of Hartford Road Café. Reply to this email with high-resolution photo if available. Thanks!
Mannequins: Can you lend or donate mannequins for a historic clothing exhibit?
Cartoons by Bill Whitaker
Circa 1970 cartoon, among those in a collection of Bill's work donated to the Manchester Historical Society June 1, 2022. Bill was a Manchester firefighter. He created cartoons on a freelance basis, and many of them wee published in The Manchester Evening Herald. Thanks to his son, Trey, for the donation. Trey said, "Once the Herald shut down, my father, an avid sportsman, began working with a local fishing/hunting magazine called Heading Out."

The Cheney Homestead (noted in the bottom sign on the left in the cartoon) opened as a house museum in 1969. Read more about that opening: Homestead.
See below for a cartoon about Manchester's 150th Anniversary in 1973:
JIGSAW PUZZLE

Click the image on the right to try the puzzle.

Circa 1914 photo of children at the former Porter Street School -- location of today's Highland Park School. Larger view here.
90 years ago in The Manchester Herald
Items related to the Great Depression, as townspeople struggled to make do during lean times. See the whole edition: Friday, June 3, 1932 edition, or to peruse all our Heralds, see: Index of Heralds.
State Historian's trivia quiz.
Try the trivia quiz by clicking the image on the right. You can also subscribe to "Today in Connecticut History" to receive daily emails.
Our properties
The Homestead at 106 Hartford Road, Manchester, was donated to the Manchester Historical Society by the Cheney family in 1968 for use as a house museum. It's usually open to the public on the second Sunday of the month and for special programs at other times throughout the year. For old photos and history of the Homestead, built in 1785, visit Cheney Homestead history. The replica Keeney Schoolhouse is on the grounds of the Homestead. Originally built in 1751, the schoolhouse had deteriorated so much that new materials had to be incorporated in the 1976 reconstruction.
The History Center at 175 Pine Street, Manchester, was purchased in 1999. Our offices and many collections are in this building, which is the former Cheney Brothers Machine Shop, a 40,000-square-foot building constructed in several phases beginning in 1895. For the current exhibit, it's open Wednesday through Friday from 10:00 to 2:00, and Saturday noon to 4:00. Visit: photo tour of lower level of History Center.
The Old Manchester Museum at 126 Cedar Street, Manchester, is owned by the Town of Manchester, and the Society has rented it since the 1980s. We store collections there, and open it to the public on the first Saturday of the month, May through December from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., staffed by hosts Art Pongratz and Bob Kanehl. The building was formerly a school, built in 1859, and moved to this location in 1914. More: Old Manchester Museum.
Woodbridge Farmstead at 495 East Middle Turnpike, at Manchester Green, is a charming combination of vintage buildings and a bucolic landscape. The farmhouse dates from 1830. The Woodbridge Farm and Meadowbrook Dairy once encompassed many acres at Manchester Green. Today, the house and grounds are owned by the Manchester Historical Society – a gift from the late Raymond and Thelma Carr Woodbridge, who gave the property in 1998, reserving a life use. The farmstead is open for free tours and programs generally on the second and fourth Sundays of the warmer months, from 12:00 noon to 2:00 p.m., but this year, starting the twice-a-month schedule in mid-June.
Silk Vault Building at 110 Elm Street, Manchester, was purchased by the Society in 2017. A unique building, constructed in 1920. More: Silk Vault. The vault is rented out, and isn't open to the public.
Find us on Facebook!
For frequent photos and tidbits, check out our Facebook page.
High school yearbooks
Enjoy the large collection of Somanhis (South Manchester High School) yearbooks on our website. In addition to photos of the graduating seniors, these books have ads for local businesses, photos of school activities, and sometimes poetry and prose by the students. Thanking our volunteers, especially Bob Gauthier, Noreen Cullen, Jim Hall, Joshua Pruden, Dick Jenkins, Susan Barlow.
Counting down to Manchester's 200th anniversary year, which begins January 1, 2023: 212 days.
The Manchester Historical Society is planning exciting activities for the Town's year-long bicentennial celebration. Check out the activities of the 1923 celebration, documented in this booklet on our website.
Answers to quiz
George H. Waddell served as our Town Manager George Waddell served as town manager for more than thirty years, until his death in December, 1951.

According to William E. Buckley, in his 1974 history of Manchester, Waddell "had a phenomenal memory. From his seat on the platform at town meetings he answered most of the questions addressed to the selectmen, occasionally erupting into a burst of figures of appropriations, expenditures and dates which dazzled the meeting and reduced the questioner to astonished silence. He seemed to store in his mind every detail of the town's business. He remembered names. He liked people and dealt with them with a combination of tact, skill and friendliness."
Waddell School was named for him. More: George Waddell.
Art classes -- summer programs
Kids and adults -- ongoing and new offerings. Info: art classes at the History Center. Questions may be directed to Trudy Mitchell.
Request for donations of small counter-top ovens in good working order for the sculpture classes offered the second week of July.
Membership for yourself or --
Consider a gift membership for a friend or loved one. Why join a local historical society, even if you don't live in that town? Some reasons: • support education about the history of the town • support preservation of artifacts and vintage photos • join in advocating for preservation of historic buildings and parks that make Manchester charming.
Print this online donation form and mail to 175 Pine Street. Or drop by the History Center, Tuesdays through Fridays from 10:00 to 2:00. Direct questions to 860-647-9983.
Additional ways to donate: Employer matching gifts! Direct United Way donations to the Society. Sign in to Amazon via Amazon Smile and have a percentage of your purchases go to the Society. .