Separation of West Hartford

The separation of West Hartford from Hartford occurred on May 3, 1854. A petition was sent to the General Assembly of Connecticut at its May session in New Haven. The following reasons were given in the petition: ample territory, sufficient taxable property, a population above most town censuses, and other inconveniences. The petition, dated April 17, 1854, was countered by other West Hartford residents, who believed that the West Division would be better off staying in Hartford because town business would be better transacted with the current model.

The petition was favorably considered by the General Assembly, and on the first Wednesday of May (May 3), 1854, an act was passed, declaring that "all that part of Hartford which is now included within the bounds of the Ecclesiastical Society of West Hartford with the inhabitants residing therein be, and the same is hereby incorporated into a separate town and by the name of West Hartford with all the privileges and immunities, and subject to all the duties and liabilities of other towns in the State, with the right to send one representative to the General Assembly; and said town shall be a part of the probate district of Hartford and of the First Senatorial District of the State."

William H. Hall recalled that in his childhood on Farmington Avenue, citizens of West Hartford, who had been in New Haven anxiously waiting for a decision by the General Assembly, passed his house in West Hartford and shouted, "We've got it! We've got it!"

Aftermath
As soon as the people of West Hartford received the good news, they gathered in the hundreds on Goodman Park and celebrated the event by marching through the principal streets, bearing banners and under the leadership and inspiration of a drum and fife corps. Solomon S. Flagg, whose name appeared first on the petittion of West Hartford, issued a call for the first town meeting, which was held on June 19, 1854 in the old Vestry on the southeast corner of Farmington Avenue and Main Street. Flagg as the moderator, the usual officers of a Connecticut town were elected. The first business to be transacted was the erection of sign-posts in different sections of the town.