West Hartford CT, a town located in Hartford County, was first established as the Parish of West Division of Hartford CT. The land used for this new settlement totaled to around 1,000 acres.
West Hartford’s original boundaries were roughly Five Mile River on the East and Farmington River on the West. These two rivers can be seen with their confluence at Mud Pond not far from the center of town, which creates another smaller river known as Quinebaug. It is said that long ago Native American tribes set up camps near these rivers because it provided an abundance of food and water for them to survive off of. Eventually more settlers came along and they pushed out many of these tribes who weren’t able to farm back in 1640 when Connecticut claimed sovereignty over the area.
Today, West Hartford CT is still a growing town with a population of 56,249 people as of the 2013 census. The first department store in West Hartford opened at The Shops at River Ridge on September 10, 2010. It was called Lord & Taylor and it became their first location ever to open in Connecticut. Next, Walmart ended up buying some land for their new store opening October 19, 2012 right next to Kohl’s on Albany Avenue. They are planning to build another one near another mall located on Blue Hills Avenue where Target is located also which should be finished by 2014 or 2015.
This second Walmart will have grocery pickup services along with the option to order online and pick up there instead of having to go into the store. Such services are also accessible in West Hartford at The Fresh Market located on Silas Deane Highway near Park Road. Target is also trying to provide same-day delivery for online orders but they will only deliver to stores which include one inside Westfarms Mall and one in Enfield CT so far.
West Hartford is still currently containing two family owned grocery chains which are Big Y World Class Markets and Stop & Shop Supermarket Company, although there has been talks of another chain called PriceRite opening up soon right next to The Shops At River Ridge on Park Road. For real estate, there is an average of seven listings today every single day with prices that range from $30,000 the way up to $1,700,000.
The town’s zip code is part of a geographic area covered by the Postal Service labeled as West Hartford Center which also includes some surrounding suburbs such as Blue Hills, Glastonbury and Newington CT.
West Hartford has been described as being the 8th safest place in Connecticut back in 2014 when taking population size into consideration. Back then you had a 1 in 47 chance of being a victim of a property crime if you lived there which makes it a lot safer than places like Watertown-Fort Drum NY where your chances are 1 out 7 at least.