Manchester, Connecticut, United States

🇺🇸 Manchester is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The urban centre of the town is the Manchester place. The town is named after Manchester, in England. Manchester, Connecticut is best known as the headquarters of Bob's Discount Furniture.

History The area known as Manchester began its recorded history as the camping grounds of a small band of peaceful Native Americans known as the Podunk tribe. The area was settled by colonists around 1673, some 40 years after Thomas Hooker led a group of Puritans from Massachusetts Bay Colony to found Hartford.

At the time it was known just as Orford Parish, a name that can still be found on the memorial to the Revolutionary soldiers from the town. The many rivers and brooks provided power for paper, lumber, and textile industries, and the town quickly evolved into an industrial center. The town of Hartford once included the land now occupied by the towns of Manchester, East Hartford, and West Hartford. In 1783, East Hartford became a separate town, which included Manchester in its city limits until 1823.

The Pitkin Glassworks operated from 1783 to 1830 as the first successful glassworks in Connecticut. The owner of the glassworks, Captain Richard Pitkin, was given a 25-year monopoly on glass as recompense for providing gunpowder to the Continental Army during the American Revolution. The Pitkin Glassworks Ruin has been preserved by the town's historical society.

In 1838, the Cheney family started what became the world's largest silk mill. Eventually, the Cheney family employed a quarter of residents and actively recruited immigrants to work in the mills. The manufacturing presence in the town made Manchester an ideal industrial community. The mills, houses of the owners, and homes of the workers are now part of the Cheney Brothers Historic District, a National Historic Landmark.

Also of note are the E.E. Hilliard Company Woolen Mills. Founded ca. 1780 by Aaron Buckland and later sold to the Hilliard family, the Hilliard Mills are the oldest woolen mill site in the country.

Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 27.7 square miles (71.7 km²), of which 27.4 square miles (71.0 km²) is land and 0.27 square miles (0.7 km²), or 1.00%, is water. The Manchester place consists of the urban centre of the town and has a total area of 6.5 square miles (16.8 km²), or about 23% of the town's total area. 6.4 square miles (16.7 km²) of the CDP is land, and 0.039 square miles (0.1 km²), or 0.56%, is water.

Economy As home to the Cheney family silk fortune, Manchester was a centre of the American silk industry from the late 19th century to the mid-20th century, and was an integral component of not only the economy but success of the town. Today, the Cheney Brothers Historic District showcases mills refurbished as apartments and includes nearby museums.

Manchester posted a total revenue, as of 2017, of $202,901,000, with total expenditures of $199 million, including $133 million towards education. The median rent between 2013–2017 was $1,181, higher than both the county and state medians. The top employing industries are retail trade, health care and social assistance, manufacturing, and government; and the top employers are the Town of Manchester, the Board of Education, Eastern Connecticut Health Network, Inc., and Allied Printing.

The town is home to The Shoppes at Buckland Hills, as well as Shady Glen, a restaurant recognised by the James Beard Foundation in 2012 as an American classic, and has been featured on Food Network.

Economy: Top employers Top employers in Manchester according to the town's 2019 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report.

1 Town of Manchester; 2 Prospect ECHN; 3 Paradigm Precision; 4 Big Y; 5 The Home Depot; 6 Allied Printing; 7 Macy's; 8 Walmart; 9 Manchester Community College; 10 JCPenney Distribution Center.

Arts and culture Stemming from a heritage of historic culture, Manchester is home to the second-oldest operating pipe band in the United States, the Manchester Pipe Band, a grade 2 pipe band, which was founded in 1914. Cheney Hall is the home of The Little Theater of Manchester, a 60 year old community theater group. The city is also home to a nonprofit orchestra, the Manchester Symphony Orchestra and Chorale, which has been performing and educating youths in music in the community since 1960.

Manchester hosts four museums. The Fire Museum is housed in a restored 1901 firehouse building. The museum's firefighting equipment and memorabilia include leather fire buckets used in colonial times, a display showing the evolution of sprinkler systems, a horse-drawn hose wagon, a 1921 Ahrens-Fox fire pumper, and a 105-foot (32 m) 1911 water tower. The Lutz Children's Museum has participatory exhibits covering art, history, science, nature and ethnology. The museum's permanent collection includes small live animals. The Old Manchester Museum, focusing on local history, is operated by the Manchester Historical Society. Permanent exhibits include examples of Cheney silk, Pitkin glass, and Spencer Repeating Rifles; the museum also houses the Manchester Sports Hall of Fame. The Cheney Homestead Museum is an eighteenth-century house of the founders of the Cheney Brothers Silk Company. On exhibit are examples of period furniture and artwork. Also on site is the one-room Keeney Schoolhouse dating from 1751.

Wickham Park, a non-profit private foundation, is located on Manchester and East Hartford property. The 53-acre (210,000 m²) Oak Grove Nature Center is a nature preserve with rivers, ponds, and hiking trails and hosts educational nature classes aimed at children. Case Mountain Recreational Area, located in the less populated south-east corner of Manchester, is popular for hiking, mountain biking, and has a great view of the Hartford skyline to the west. Charter Oak Park, located in downtown, is popular for basketball, softball, and tennis, and includes four community soccer field. The park underwent a $2 million renovation in 2017 which improved existing infrastructure in addition to adding a musical garden, jogging tracks, bathrooms, and an upgraded playground.

The annual auto show Cruisin' on Main Street is held every August and is one of the largest shows of its kind in the north-east, showcasing over 14,000 vintage and rare vehicles and attracting over 400,000 visitors since its inception in 2001. The event has also endowed an annual scholarship for local area high school students pursuing further education.

Sport Manchester Country Club opened in 1917 and was originally designed by Tom Bendelow and Deveroux Emmet. In 1935, it was redesigned in by A.W. Tillinghast. The golf course features a classical New England design and holds an annual open tournament.

Perhaps the most enduring sports legacy of the town is the Manchester Road Race, a 4.748 mile footrace which is held every Thanksgiving morning. It is the second most popular race in New England, behind the Boston Marathon. The event attracts over 10,000 participants, including Olympians, world record holders, and international athletes, in addition to thousands of spectators. The race was first run in 1927, and benefits muscular dystrophy research as well as over a dozen other charities.

The Manchester Silkworms, named for the town's storied past as a silk producer and the world's largest silk mill, were a collegiate summer baseball team founded in 2000. Several former players continued their career to the major leagues, including former Red Sox catcher and veteran Ryan Lavarnway. The team relocated to Laconia, New Hampshire after the 2009 season.

Media: Print Manchester is home to a local newspaper, the Journal Inquirer, which serves all of Manchester and the surrounding areas. The Hartford Courant also has a facility in Manchester and can be delivered anywhere in town.

Transport: Road Manchester has parts of three interstate highways (I-84, I-384, and I-291) and Route 6 and Route 44 together constitute Manchester's principal east/west arterial. Connecticut Route 30 is an east/west arterial in the northern section of town. Connecticut Route 83 is Manchester's principal north/south arterial. Starting as South Main Street at the southern border with Glastonbury, Route 83 becomes Main Street through the centre of town.

Transport: Public Manchester is served by the Hartford division of Connecticut Transit. Routes 80, 82, 83, 84, 85, 88, and 121 connect Manchester directly to the city of Hartford.

Transport: Rail No passenger service currently exists in town. Freight service from Hartford is provided by Connecticut Southern Railroad.

The closest passenger rail service is available at Hartford's Union Station, approximately 10 miles west.

Transport: Air Bradley International Airport, in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, is twenty minutes north of downtown Hartford. It features over 150 daily departures to over 30 destinations on nine airlines. Other airports serving the Hartford area include: • Hartford–Brainard Airport, found in Hartford off I-91 and close to Wethersfield, serves charter flights and local flights. • Westover Metropolitan Airport, located in Chicopee, Massachusetts, 27 miles (43 km) north of Hartford, serves commercial, local, charter, and military flights • Tweed New Haven Airport, located in New Haven, Connecticut, is served by Avelo Airlines

Bicycling Manchester has several on and off-road bicycle routes. The two most popular routes are the Charter Oak Greenway and the Hop River State Park Trail. Portions of each of those routes have been designated as parts of the East Coast Greenway.