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East Hartford, CT - 06108,
06118, 06128 & 06138
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About East Hartford Connecticut:
East Hartford is home to the headquarters of Pratt & Whitney, part of the United Technologies conglomerate. The manufacturing plant takes up a significant amount of East Hartford's area, and at its peak, it employed tens of thousands of people; however, currently, it only employs about 5,000. East Hartford also contains a Coca-Cola bottling plant, located on Main Street. The city is dotted with various industrial and suburban office parks.
The East Riverside Drive and Connecticut Boulevard areas, just east of the CT river, contain extensive development, including car dealerships, medical offices, and light retail development. Notably, Goodwin College plans to build a large campus on Riverside Drive. It will also develop blighted housing projects into student housing.
Wickham Park, located in both East Hartford and Manchester, features Oriental gardens, fountains, open fields, woodlands, ponds, picnic areas, softball fields, and an aviary. The west side of the park offers a scenic view of East Hartford and the skyline of Hartford across the Connecticut River.
Nearby, on land previously owned by Pratt & Whitney, lies the recently erected Rentschler Field (construction completed September 2003), home of the UConn Huskies football team.
Built on an abandoned section of the Pratt and Whitney air field, a $1 billion dollar technology, entertainment lodging and retail development called Rentschler Field is in the process of being built. Currently, Rentschler Field consists of a stadium which is the home of the UConn Huskies football team. The arena has also been used for concerts by artists including Rolling Stones. Cabela's, a major direct marketer of outdoor merchandise in the U.S., has committed to constructing an interactive super center at the site and plans to open in 2007. Hotels, technology companies, and various retail outlets are expected to begin construction in the near future as well.
East Hartford is home to a diverse mix of neighborhoods. The northeast and southeast sections of the town are suburban and resemble neighboring towns like South Windsor, Connecticut. Especially in the south of the city, many single family homes are look-a-like ranch houses, contributing to Hartford's urban sprawl. People here tend to be lower middle class. In contrast, the older, more urban sections of the town are moderate and low income. Some of these neighborhoods include Hockanum in the southwest of the city, Burnside Avenue in the center of the city, and Mayberry Village. Unlike poor districts in other cities, there are still large populations of whites living with other minorities, though white flight is beginning to change this. This demographic shift is occurring everywhere in the city.
When the Connecticut Valley became known to Europeans around 1631, it was inhabited by what were known as the River Tribes ? a number of small clans of Native Americans living along the Great River and its tributaries. Of these tribes the Podunks occupied territory now lying in the towns of East Hartford and South Windsor, and numbered, by differing estimates, from sixty to two hundred bowmen. They were governed by two sachems, Waginacut and Arramamet, and were connected in some way with the Native Americans who lived across the Great River, in Windsor. The region north of the Hockanum river was generally called Podunk; that south of the river, Hockanum; but these were no certain designations, and by some all the meadow along the Great River was called Hockanum. [2]
In 1659, Thomas Burnham (1617 - 1688) purchased the tract of land now covered by the towns of South Windsor and East Hartford from Tantinomo, Chief sachem of the Podunk Indians.[2] Burnham lived on the land and later willed it to his nine children.[3] The town of Hartford once included the land now occupied by the towns of East Hartford, Manchester, and West Hartford. In 1783, East Hartford became a separate town, which included Manchester in its city limits until 1823.[2]
Most content provided by Wikipedia, "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Hartford%2C_Connecticut"
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