West Hartford Mural

This is a mural in the West Hartford Trader Joe's store. I think the idea is to show some of the local sites. I hate to point out to Trader Joe's (a great West Hartford store) that almost every single thing in this picture is from some other town - not West Hartford. With the exception of the Noah Webster House (where our greatest resident resided), all of those other things are in a place called "Hartford" somewhere off to the east of West Hartford. Mark Twain, his house, Elizabeth Park, the Colt Dome, the Soldier's and Sailor's Memorial Arch, the Hartford Carousel: those things are in "Hartford", where most of us try not to venture. We don't really understand what all of those things from another town are doing on a mural with the words West Hartford stretched across it...certainly they could have found some good landmarks from West Hartford to paint up there!! I mean, there are plenty of good buildings featured right here on this very blog that would look GREAT right up there on the wall of Trader Joe's. Oh well their loss!

Exploring Bishop's Corner

Bishops Corner in West Hartford is a great place. There are four major complexes built in the 60's that are mixed use office and retail, sometimes with little tucked-away indoor mini-malls with travel agencies and barber shops.

Anyways, there was a mammouth two story Caldor here that was turned into a Marshalls upstairs and a supermarket downstairs. The supermarket was called Edwards. Here it is:


To the side there is a shared parking garage. The giant concrete slabs are supposed to be flower boxes, I think:


Lets take a peak inside!!


Some hobo has set up some furniture there amongst the abandoned shopping carts. How industrious! Lets head up to the top floor of the parking garage where you can get easy access to Marshalls.


Oops! When we got out and walked to the staiway down to Marshalls it was blocked. Full of more abandoned shopping carts, too!


Oh well... There is always this rape-o-matic stairwell that we could go down:



We didn't get his picture, but there was some guy with long hair and a guitar living in there when we visited. He was chased out by an old black security guard. Great work!

So lets walk back around to second level. Here is a little Marshall's waiting area of sorts. Three cool 1970's chairs, a trash can and an ash-tray. The trash can has a sign on it that says "trash only". It makes me wonder why someone would put a non-trash item in the trash and what business is it of the person who taped the note on there?


Finally our journey is complete and we survey the great stuff that Marshall's has to offer. Check out these four foot tall metal rabbit sculptures! Too cute!

Wild Oats Community Marketplace

This is the downstairs of Wild Oats, a "natural marketplace" in West Hartford. It is used now only for storing meat and stuff. This place used to be Service Merchandise. They had diamonds and stereos and whatnot. Before that it was a place called Value House and its first occupant back in 1966 was Bradlees.

Nails, Nails, Nails

Well, if you are thinking of moving to West Hartford, Conecticut and are interested in knowing if there are any shops that offer services for the cuticles than look no further. Indeed, there are many options in West Hartford for nails. Here are just a few, but there are many more:



Here is "Nail PRO", they are pros, they do not mess about with your precious nails! Your nails are in good hands here!!



Whoah!! Good grief! Wait just a minute!!! this isn't "Nail PRO" this place next to "Deluxe Liquors" is called is "PRO NAILS"...hmmm, kind of close to "Nail Pro" don't you think???! Let us hope that no giant legal feud erupts here, after all, I am sure they are BOTH absolute "pros" when it comes to nails.



Well, you can't argue with the name of this place. THE BEST NAIL. Bar none, this place produces the best nail in West Hartford.



Anna's Beautiful Nails: I have never seen Anna's nails, but certainly, they must be beautiful! This place had real fancy chandalier hanging inside!

Bus Fleet

Here at the West Hartford Town Line you see a group of buses used for the shuttling of West Hartford children to and from the town's youth wharehousing facilities. Click to enlarge.

Rental Opportunities in West Hartford

This place used to be a bank, I think a Shamut, then a Bank of Boston, Connecticut, then perhaps a People's Bank. After that it was a dollar store for a while that had a lot of plastic figurines. It still has a drive-thru! This place just exudes a cool 1970's style! Who wouldn't want to rent this brown parking lot island location? It's sweet!



Where does the one-legged waitress work? Not here!! This classic International House of Pancakes A-Frame has been abandoned and is just waiting for your new business to move in! Too bad it closed down though. The manager looked suspiciously like Weird Al Yankovic and one time I found a large bone in my spicy sausage link, but it was still great.




This used to be a Jiffy Lube. Not to worry for West Hartford residents, though. There are plenty of other oil-change options in the town! In fact "In and Out Lube Centers" is right around the corner.

More rental opportunities coming next week.

Good Eats

Here is a West Hartford denizen headed to a favorite hole: Hometown Buffet! Look at her shoes, aren't they amazing? Click the photo for a closer look! She had just climed out of the cab of a tractor trailer before heading in to to enjoy the all-you-can-eat goodness.

HomeTown Buffet has a mascot named "H.T. Bee" for in-restaurant appearances, the location manager or another employee bears the costume and greets guests and children. Isn't that great?

West Harfordites LOVE Hometown Buffet!

The West Hartford Gun Factory

This is the Colt Manufacturing factory in West Hartford. It is right next to B.J.'s wholesale club. Colt is one of West Hartford's biggest employers. They make a lot of guns in West Hartford and send them all over the world.

Here is a great one: M203 Grenade Launcher! It has a lethal radius of five meters and can penetrate up to three inches of armor plate!



This West Hartford machine gun is the M4 Commando, famous for its lightweight, ease of handling, accuracy and reliability and it has a 4 position sliding buttstock!

Wonder Hostess Thrift Store

This place used to be the "Wonder Bread Hostess Bakery Thrift Store". It was sort of an outlet shop where you could purchase discounted loaves of Wonder Bread and snack-cakes like Twinkies, Ho-Hos and Ding-Dongs. When it closed it was a real loss to the community. Granted there are other locations to purchase Ho-Hos and Ding-Dongs, but not at such rock-bottom prices. Come back to West Hartford "Wonder Bread Hostess Bakery Thrift Store"!

HoHos!
HoHos!
Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho!
The Chocolatey snack that gives you go!
It's candy and cake
All in one
It's two great treats
And so much fun!

Dresses for Lesses

West Hartford boasts a strong retail and service business network. There is a wealth of shopping and dining opportunities, from neighborhood restaurants to regional shopping destinations.

If you are looking for dresses that don't cost MORE but rather cost LESS than other dresses you should check out Dresses for Less in West Hartford:



Right across the street there is an old Esquire Cleaners that closed down and turned into a dry cleaner slash Tai food restaurant. Have some pad tai while you wait for your dirty shirts to be washed!

Here is a great building. Cooler than your average big-box, it has these cool slanty things over the doors. It was once a Caldor, thean an Ames. Somewhere I read they are going to make it into a self-storage facilty for people to store their stuff in. Very handy!



here is what is right next door: DOLLAR DREAMS! My six year old son calls it "Dollar Nightmares". This was once a place called Waldbaum's Foodmart, they were the "Grocery Experts," (remember their jingle? "Picky, picky, picky!!").

On the sign it say "Everything $1.00 or More". It used to say "Everything $1.00 or Less" but they pasted a sign that says "More" right over the word "less".

First posts

Hello! Welcome to West Harttford and to this blog! I hope that you will find this photo tour of our town to be informative and FUN! Please have a look around.

See you in WEST HARTFORD: THE PLACE WHERE CITY STYLE MEETS VILLAGE CHARM...