History Lesson

About nine months ago, after we finalized the deal to purchase Savage Hart Farm (on my birthday, no less), I did some internet research on the Jericho Rural Historic District. Google pointed me to a PDF published by the Town of Hartford. I printed it off, skimmed it, and filed it away somewhere.

Now that we’ve been here six months, and we’ve gotten to know the area some, I thought a revisit might be interesting. (It’s too cold today to do much more than stoke the woodstove and write.) If you’re at all interested, here is the PDF.

Jericho Rural Historic District

Points I think are worth noting:

  • Jericho covers 774 acres, 715 in Hartford and 59 in Norwich.  That means SHF is about 4% of the total acreage.
  • “The name reportedly dates to the 1770s when Rev. Aaron Huchinson named Hartford’s hamlets as Dothan, Goshen, and Jericho after Biblical lands known for fertility and hospitality.”
  • SHF is very close to the “heart” of the district – the intersection of Jericho Street and Jericho Road. There are several remaining structures at that intersection, dating back to 1789. We get our hay from one of the barns that was built in 1880. This shot from the first page of the PDF was taken from what is now our property looking toward the intersection – the schoolhouse is on the left.
Farming On Savage Hill

Farming On Savage Hill

  • The one room Schoolhouse, which is across Jericho Street from our property, just a little west of the intersection, was built in 1849 and classes were taught there until 1947.  We’ve been told that the teacher lived in a room on the second floor of the house on the south corner.  The Jericho Community Association bought the building in 1951 and uses it for meetings and functions.  We enjoyed a pot luck dinner there in October. It has the largest stove we’ve ever seen.
Jericho School 1915

Jericho School 1915

  • Prominent family names include Hazen (at one point the Hazens owned more than 3,000 acres throughout Hartford; we see that name on a lot of local street signs), Nott (the Nott family is still prominent and seems to have moved over the hill closer to Norwich), and Savage.
  • The map notes two old sugarbushes and five areas of “apple trees”. Interestingly, it does not note the very large sugarbush we hike through when we walk the trail to Jeffe’s Hill. SHF if #21 on the map. The legend defines it as a “non-contributing resource”. Not if we have our way!
Map of Jericho District

Map of Jericho District

Todd

 

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