Manchester Historical Society
Manchester quiz. Can you answer these questions?

What is this place? Location? Hint: The building is still there, with a new purpose.
Scroll down for answers.
Welcome to all.
Our Then & Now exhibit
History Center, 175 Pine Street.
Open Wednesday through Friday 10:00 to 2:00, and Saturdays 12:00 noon to 4:00. The exhibit tells the story of Manchester's past as it relates to the future. Photos, artifacts, stories!
Members are called to the annual meeting
Sunday, September 25, at 1:00 p.m., at the History Center, 175 Pine Street. Members received a postal mailing with additional information, including agenda, slate of officers, etc.
Free and informative genealogy help
Ancestors Road Show at Manchester's Town Hall.
Saturday, September 24, from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., free and helpful as you learn how to do genealogical research. Register in advance, 860-647-3037, for a free 25-minute private consultation with one of the six professional genealogists from the Connecticut Professional Genealogists Council -- they are volunteering their time to provide one-on-one consultations on any genealogical question. Participants will complete a questionnaire so they can be assigned to the most appropriate consultant to help them trace their roots or answer other questions. All are welcome -- beginners, advanced, non-residents, and residents. The Darryl Thames and the Town Clerk's office are sponsoring this event. Come and meet experts in the field. The Town Hall is located at 41 Center Street, with plenty of free parking behind the building.
Jigsaw.
c. 1920 selfie by John Knoll.
Click on the image below to try your hand at the puzzle. Read more about John Knoll.
Open House at the Old Manchester Museum at 126 Cedar Street, Manchester, Saturday, October 1 -- the first Saturday of the month -- from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., staffed by hosts Art Pongratz and Bob Kanehl. Yes, the building is air conditioned! Drop by for a short chat or stay for a few hours. More: Old Manchester Museum.
Open House at the Cheney Homestead
Sunday, October 9 from 1:00 to 4:00. Experience Early American lifestyle -- the 1751 schoolhouse and 1785 homestead are alive in period furnishings as the people experienced life at the time. The house is staged, on the first floor, in 1818. The second floor is 1840, with two new exhibit rooms: • "Women of the Cheney Family," and • "Ingenuity and Industry" of the Cheney family. The Homestead is located at 106 Hartford Road. $5 suggested donation.
Homestead from across the lawn. Come visit for a few minutes or stay longer.
Part of "Cheney Women" exhibit.
Coming this fall to the Homestead, 106 Hartford Road
Rug-braiding workshop
Thursday & Friday, October 20 & 21 from 9:30 to 4:30, Teri Stratton will teach us how to create an heirloom braided rug that will last for generations. $190 plus materials. Register: Heirloom rug.
Note that there will be no Woodbridge open house on Sept. 25 so that our volunteers can attend the Society's annual meeting at the History Center
Open house at Woodbridge Farmstead
Pumpkin Festival on
Sunday, October 9
Open noon to 2:00 p.m. Visit for 10 minutes or two hours. There will be a “guess a pumpkin's weight” contest, join a pumpkin hunt, or paint a pumpkin. Prizes will be given. We will be celebrating with apple cider and pumpkin donuts. Tours of the 1830 farmhouse at 12:15 and 1:00 p.m. Check out our Visitor Center’s displays showing some of the history of the Manchester Green area. Take a self-guided tour through our late 18th century barn and the grounds of the Farmstead. 495 East Middle Turnpike, with parking in front of the house or at the nearby Senior Center. Free. The Farmstead is open the 2nd and 4th Sundays of the month through October.
September television show
The Historical Society television show airs at noon and 8:00 p.m. on Saturdays throughout this month; during August, watch "Art in Manchester,” a 50-minute television program with examples of gifted artists who worked in Manchester: artists, architects, educators, and organizers. The show airs at 12:00 noon and 8:00 p.m. 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. The television show is produced by Susan Barlow and directed by Kathryn Wilson, volunteers of the Manchester Historical Society. Some previous local-history shows can be borrowed at Mary Cheney Library. You can watch this month's show on the Public Access website "Art in Manchester" 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.
Note: That's a Russell Cheney painting, above right.
70 years ago in The Manchester Herald
The September 23, 1952 Herald reported political news as the election was drawing near, and news of the Korean War, which had begun in 1950. See the whole edition: September 23, 1952 Herald, or to peruse all our Heralds, see: Index of Heralds.
Below, An essay about fall on the editorial page, probably written by Alan Olmstead (1907-1980), who also wrote seasonal essays for The New Yorker magazine. Alan was the Herald's editorial page editor for many years.
Upcoming events of interest to history buffs
  • OF INTEREST: Saturday, October 1, "Rotary in Motion" starting at 9:55 a.m. at Charter Oak Park, Manchester, with bike rides and a history tour of the park, Hartford Road, and East Coast Greenway, with commentary by Town Historian Susan Barlow. Meet at the pavilion in the park -- plenty of parking. Two to three miles, depending on the weather. Register with Rotary to receive a bracelet and snacks. The walk starts at 10:00. Sponsored by Manchester Rotary Club. Free.
  • OF INTEREST: Saturday, October 8, the 47th annual walking tour of the Cheney Historic District with commentary by Dr. Christopher Paulin of Manchester Community College, 1:00 p.m. Popular history walk starting at Fuss & O'Neill, 146 Hartford Road (plenty of parking in the lots west and south of the building). Find out about those huge brick buildings that remain from the days of the world-famous silk mills. Who worked there? Who owned the mills? Where did workers and owners live? We’ll see Cheney Hall, the former silk mills, the location of the former South Manchester Railroad, the former Cheney machine shop, neighborhoods of worker housing, Washington School, and the Fire Museum. The walk takes about two hours with a distance of a mile or so. No rain date, so bring umbrellas if weather is iffy. Extreme weather cancels. The walk is free. The District walking tour began in 1976 under the leadership of Manchester Community College faculty members John Sutherland and the late Tom Lewis. Christopher Paulin has continued the tradition. Sponsored by the Cheney Brothers National Historic Landmark District and the Manchester Community College Institute of Local History. Free.
  • OF INTEREST: Saturday, October 15, house tour of six historic homes, a fundraiser ($35 per person for advance tickets, $40 on the day of the tour) for The Manchester Sculpture Project. Three of the houses are Cheney mansions on the Great Lawn, not usually open to the public. There will be a silent auction of special items. Our first house tour, in Octobe 2018, was a popular event and a great opportunity to find out more about these vintage Manchester houses. More about the bronze statues.
  • OF INTEREST: Saturday, October 22 at 1:00 p.m., Cheney Railroad History Walk North to South, meeting north of the tracks that intersect Main Street near North Main Street (details below). Hikers will have an easy and fairly flat walk along the former railroad, built in 1869 to connect the Cheney silk mills to the main rail line in the North End. We will hike at a moderate pace along the one-mile portion owned by the Manchester Land Conservation Trust and then across Middle Turnpike to the bridge overlooking Center Springs Park and Bigelow Brook, about three miles round trip. Participants will hear about the history of the railroad. Meet at the north end of Main Street in Manchester, in the parking lot of the strip mall (at 220 North Main Street) on the north side of the tracks. Park at the strip mall or Eighth Utilities District office building at 18 Main Street (please do not park in Farr's parking lot). We will hike if light rain -- bring an umbrella -- but extreme weather cancels. Sponsored by the Manchester Land Conservation Trust.
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: 100 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
Now the home and museum of the Connecticut Firemen's Historical Society, this former fire station or "hose house" was built in 1901 by Cheney brothers. It's located at 230 Pine Street at the corner of Hartford Road. It's open seasonally Fridays and Saturdays 12:00 to 4:00. It became a museum in 1979, through the dedication and work of volunteers. More: Fire Museum.
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. Weather permitting, 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.
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.
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. .