2019 Celebrate Bloomfield – Wintonbury Historical Society
Bus Tours of Bloomfield’s Sites of Architectural and Historic Interest
Sunday, June 9, 2019
12:30 pm
“Bloomfield’s Gradual Shift toward Suburban Living.”
2:30 pm
“Bloomfield’s Historic Houses of the Future.”
Attendees can join both tours; the second tour may be more instructive if one joins the first tour, but its subject matter and presentation does not require that the trips be taken in sequence.
The Wintonbury Historical Society will present two tours of the town, each covering homes and sites of distinct time periods in the town’s development.
The first trip will depart from the Fannie Gabriel History Center/Old Farm School at 12:30 PM, and it should take about one hour. The tour is entitled “Bloomfield’s Gradual Shift toward Suburban Living.” The tour will focus on developments in the town’s growth as it evolved between approximately 1890 and 1940. While Bloomfield’s economy and landscape during this timeframe retained a largely agricultural core, accelerating changes in society, such as standardized mechanization, the development of the automobile, and the availability of innumerable goods and services that could be purchased instead of produced at individual home sites, fed a growing demand for homes that accommodated individual families. Numerous trends in styles, size and location evolved and are reflected in Bloomfield’s developing townscape. Many of these homes remain completely viable and desirable residences today, and as such, they often hide in plain sight to the casual observer. The intent of this tour is to bring into focus attention on the unique and often quite handsome buildings of this period.
The second trip will depart from the same location at 2:30 PM, and it should last a bit more than an hour. It is entitled, “Bloomfield’s Historic Houses of the Future.” Thistour will be a slightly updated version of the tour that was initially presented in 2016. The focus will cover Bloomfield’s transformation into a much more suburban landscape during the years 1945-1970. Sites of interest will include homes built immediately after World War II, the development of subdivisions, and the simultaneous construction of architecturally unique and significant homes.
Attendees can join both tours; the second tour may be more instructive if one joins the first tour, but its subject matter and presentation does not require that the trips be taken in sequence.