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Walking Tours, Lectures, Fundraisers, and Other Activities
Lectures usually take place at the Manchester History Center at 175 Pine Street. Parking is available along Pleasant Street, and parking for people with disabilities is available in the small lot next to the History Center. The building is accessible.
Lectures and walking tours usually cost $1.00 for Manchester Historical Society members; $3.00 for non-members; free for children under 16.
Click here to become a member!
Announcing the Boy Scout exhibit at the Old Manchester Museum, 126 Cedar Street: 2010 marks the 100th anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America, and the 99th anniversary of scouting in Manchester. This new exhibit showcases Boy Scout memorabilia and activities, and has been coordinated by Troops 25, 27, 47 and 123 of Manchester. We are still seeking photos for the exhibit. The Old Manchester Museum and museum store are open Saturdays from 10 to 4 and Sundays 1 to 4. Regular admission is $2 for non-members, free for children under 16, and free on the last weekend of the month.
Collecting memories and photos for Verplanck School’s 60th birthday: Verplanck Elementary School opened in September 1950, and the students and staff are preparing presentations to celebrate its anniversary. Can you help by sending memories and photos, and helping us locate graduates and former faculty? The goal is to “give our present-day Verplanck community a sense of school history and appreciation.” Please send info to Verplanck teachers Eileen Griffin b55egrif@yahoo.com, 860-649-5198, or Lynn Rhodes, 860-643-0769. Verplanck School was named for Fred Ayer Verplanck (1860-1957), who served Manchester schools as a teacher, principal, and superintendent from 1893 to 1935. More information about Mr. Verplanck and the old South Manchester High School is available on the Manchester Historical Society’s web site at South Manchester High School. and about Mr. Verplanck and a scholarship named for him at Verplanck Scholarship Fund.
Saturday, September 11, 9:30 a.m., Volunteer Meeting and Breakfast: At the History Center, 175 Pine Street. Volunteers are the backbone of the Manchester Historical Society! Many of our volunteers have been active for years. It’s fun and it gives you a great sense of accomplishment. You frequently learn something new, and meet new people.
Please come to the volunteer meeting and learn about upcoming opportunities that you can sign up for: museum docents, tag sale workers, museum store clerks, exhibit designers, cataloguers, work crews indoors and outdoors, and convivial people to staff our events, assist with parking, decorate tables and booths, etc. Free and fun training. There really is something for everyone. Members of the Historical Society board will be on hand to greet you. RSVP for the meeting, so we’ll have enough coffee. If you can’t come to the meeting, but want to volunteer, give us a call. Contact for RSVPs and volunteering: 860-647-9983. Parking is available along Pleasant Street and in the lot north of the History Center.
Sunday, September 12, and the second Sunday of each month, from 1 to 4, Cheney Homestead open to visitors: View this 1785 house at 106 Hartford Road, and hear commentary about this interesting residence, which was donated to the Manchester Historical Society in 1968. The Keeney Schoolhouse will also be open for tours. Admission and guided tour by donations, for which we are very grateful.
Saturday, September 18, Center Cemetery's 300th Birthday Celebration in East Hartford, starting at 4 p.m.: The Friends of Center Cemetery invite members and friends of the Manchester Historical Society to a rededication of the 1868 Civil War monument, acknowledging the 10-year-long restoration, managed by the Friends. The party is free, followed at 5 p.m. by displays, vendors, readings, gravestone carving, refreshments to purchase. AT 7 p.m., Lantern Tours are offered at $10 (free for children under 6) with historical interpreters. The cemtery is at 944 Main St., East Hartford, across from Walgreens, and its first gravestones predate Manchester's independence from East Hartford. Parking at the Save A Lot Store on Main St. Questions may be directed to Ruth Shapleigh-Brown, head of the Connecticut Gravestone Network, at 860-643-5652. Proceeds help preserve the old monuments and gravestones.
Saturday, September 25, free Cheney Railroad history walk, 1 p.m.: Hikers will have an easy, but bumpy, walk along the former railroad, built in 1869 to connect the Cheney silk mills to the main rail line in the North End. At 2.5 miles, it was the longest private freight-and-passenger railroad in the United States. We will hike along the one-mile portion owned by the Manchester Land Conservation Trust, and on to Center Springs Park, which will take about 1-1/2 hours round trip. Phone hike leader Susan Barlow (860-643-9776) if questions. There are no restrooms along the route. Meet at the North End of Main Street in Manchester, behind Farr’s Sporting Goods, 2 Main Street. Park at the nearby shopping plaza or Eighth Utilities District office building. A special favor will be given to children who attend the hike, sponsored by the Connecticut Forest & Park Association's family ramble program, but open to all, especially those interested in local history. Extreme weather cancels. No dogs, please.
Saturdays during September, “Visiting Manchester’s Hollywood,” a televised tour of a neighborhood off East Center Street, designed as a residential suburb by E.J. Holl. Mary Dunne and Susan Barlow, of the Historical Society, discuss house styles, street layouts, and pattern books, from which the house designs were chosen. They visit the interior of a colonial revival home in Hollywood, and talk with the proprietor of the Hollywood Service Station. After the Hollywood tour are excerpts from a walking tour of south Manchester. Both tours were filmed during 2004, and the program runs for one hour. The show airs at 8 p.m. on Cox cable channel 15 on Saturdays, and the 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, or purchased at the Historical Society Museum Store. Comments from the public are welcome, email Television Show Comments. The television show is produced by Susan Barlow and filmed by Kathryn Wilson of the Historical Society.
Saturday, October 2 to Sunday October 10, from 9 to 5, GIGANTIC WEEK-LONG Tag Sale: At the History Center, 175 Pine Street, with preview on Friday, October 1 ($5 entry fee) from 4 to 8. Free entrance on other days. Shop our 6,000-square-foot sale for thousands of books, holiday decor, children's toys and games, furniture, household goods, china, sports items, gardening equipment, framed artwork, linens, and items both useful and decorative. The History Center is in the former Cheney machine shop, in the Cheney Brothers National Historic Landmark District. It is an amazing building, with wonderful photographs and artifacts. Parking is available along Pleasant Street. We will accept tag sale donations throughout September, Monday through Friday from 10 to 2 -- clean, saleable items only. No computers, clothes, or textbooks, please. If you have items to donate and can't come during those hours, please call our tag sale manager and Board member Terry Parla at 860-643-1823.
Saturday, October 2, Cheney District history walk, 1 p.m.: Annual stroll to visit the center of the Cheney Brothers Landmark Historic District. This popular walking tour visits Cheney Hall, the silk mills, the South Manchester Railroad, the Loom exhibit at the former Cheney machine shop, neighborhoods of worker housing, and the Old Manchester Museum, where light refreshments will be served. The walk takes up to two hours with a distance of a mile or so. Meet at 146 Hartford Road, the former Cheney Office Building, and now occupied by Fuss & O'Neill. No rain date, so we will bring umbrellas if weather is iffy. Extreme weather cancels. Co-sponsored by Manchester Community College's Institute of Local History, the Manchester Historical Society, and the Cheney Brothers Landmark Historic District Commission. Donations accepted.
Sunday, October 10, and the second Sunday of each month, from 1 to 4, Cheney Homestead open to visitors: View this 1785 house at 106 Hartford Road, and hear commentary about this interesting residence, which was donated to the Manchester Historical Society in 1968. Admission and guided tour by donations, for which we are very grateful.
Sunday, October 10, "Meet me at the Vault" tour and program on local history at the Town Clerk's office, 1 p.m.: In the Town Hall. Joe Camposeo will show us records from the past. Free and open to the public. Donations accepted.
Sunday, October 24, Annual Meeting, 1 p.m.: At the Manchester History Center, 175 Pine Street. Members are
called to the annual meeting, including an overview of the past year, business matters, and election of officers. Following
the meeting, there will be a short program about local history. There is no admission fee.
Saturday, October 30, free Salter's Pond walk with some historic commentary, 1 p.m.: the Manchester Land Conservation Trust invites Historical Society members and friends to a moderately paced walk at Salter's Pond, which got its name from Lorenzo T. Salter who, in partnership with William Strong, founded the Salter and Strong paper mill. Later, Lydall and Foulds bought and ran this mill. Many North End residents learned to swim at Salter’s Pond before the town swimming pool was built. Our walk will include historic commentary. Meet at the parking lot of the town swimming pool on Lydall Street, east of the intersection with Coleman Road. The walk may be wet depending on the weather, and hikers should wear sturdy waterproof footwear; the route is not mountainous, but does have stairs and bumpy spots, where roots stick out, so participants need to be agile. The walk will take about 1 hour round trip. Extreme weather cancels. No dogs, please. Why not wear something scary for Hallowe'en? For those who have an extra half-hour, refreshments will be served after the walk at the Scanlon home.
Sunday, November 14, 2:00 p.m. (NOTE TIME), Tour and Lecture of the renovated Hilliard Mills: Meet at 642 Hilliard St., Manchester (NOTE LOCATION!), for a walk, tour, and talk at this historic woolen mill near the confluence of Bigelow Brook and the Hockanum River. We will tour both inside and outside, so wear sturdy shoes. Owners Pete, Sean, and Al will describe the work they have done and their uncovering of history during their renovations. $1 for Historical Society members and Hockanum River trail volunteers, $3 for non-members, free for children under age 16. More information about the history of the mills at Hilliard Mills web site.
Sunday, November 14, and the second Sunday of each month, from 1 to 4, Cheney Homestead open to visitors: View this 1785 house at 106 Hartford Road, and hear commentary about this interesting residence, which was donated to the Manchester Historical Society in 1968. Admission and guided tour by donations, for which we are very grateful.
Friday, November 19, 1:30 p.m. (NOTE TIME AND LOCATION), Hartford’s Changing East Side, From Front Street to Constitution Plaza: At the SBM Auditorium at MCC, the Oranization of Active Adults invites Historical Society members and friends to this presentation of oral and illustrated history of the East Side Italian district, the riverfront, what it was and what it became. Historical Society member Jason Scappaticci will present this illustrated lecture.
Friday, December 3, Seventh Annual Holiday Gala, 6:30 to 9 p.m.: at the Manchester History Center, 175 Pine Street. COME ONE, COME ALL to this fun-filled event, featuring live and teacup auctions, wine, hors d’oeuvres, coffee, and dessert. Gift certificates, restaurant certificates, art objects, jewelry, decorated wreaths, gift baskets, miniature trees, and other items will be auctioned. Parking available along Pleasant Street and on the lawn next to the building's Forest Street side. Handicapped parking is available in the small lot north of the building. More details as we get closer to the event. Tickets to the event cost $15 (member price) and $20 (non-member price).
Saturday, December 4, Open House, (hours vary): come visit all the Historical Society properties FREE. Special activities and decor at our historical properties in the Cheney Brothers district, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. Visit the Cheney Homestead, 106 Hartford Road, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., where the Fireside Patriots, Civil War-era interpreters, will demonstrate life in the nineteenth century, presenting a living history throughout the open house. Visit the Manchester History Center, 175 Pine Street, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., the former Cheney machine shop, where equipment was made and repaired during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; students from the MusicMakers Academy will present a harp concert at 1 p.m. Visit the Old Manchester Museum, 126 Cedar Street, from 10 to 4 featuring a bake sale, seasonal exhibits and maps of Manchester. Both the History Center and the Museum have museum stores with books, note cards and other items of interest to local historians. There will also be free admission to the nearby Fire Museum and Cheney Hall, both on Hartford Road, and the Lutz Museum on South Main Street, which will all be open 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The hours of the museum store at the History Center, 175 Pine Street, are generally Monday through Friday 10 to 2 except holidays. We recommend phoning ahead, 860-647-9983. The administrative offices at the Manchester History Center are open by appointment; please phone 860-647-9983.
The Old Manchester Museum and its museum store at 126 Cedar Street are open 10 to 4 on Saturdays, and 1 to 4 on Sundays, except holidays.
If you have questions about using the research library, please phone the curator at 860-647-9742.
Click here for the Town's events calendar.
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