West Hartford, Vermont circa 1965

Two Stores, Sixties Cars, and Three Floods

Jigsaw: Mid-60s West Hartford

This picture caught my eye for a few reasons: I've always liked West Hartford and I used to go to the store on the right, formerly a stopping point for many an Appalachian trail hiker. My dad had a '64 Mustang, seen here parked heading west on Route 14. That and our turquoise '57 Chevy wagon are two cars I wished I still had.

In this view, the West Hartford Bridge is to your right and straight ahead is Harper Savage Lane (formerly Depot Street), the heart of “downtown” West Hartford. I tried to take a current picture of the scene, but it was unfeasible, as both banks are completely grown in.

As often happens, one thing led to another, and I learned a lot about classic cars, historic floods, and important buildings, including the West Hartford depot.

1906 USGS Map:

So many buildings on the river side of Route 14 in 1906. There are none now.

Classic Cars:

• 1965–1966 Ford Mustang (foreground coupe by store)

• 1965 Pontiac full-size (split grille, stacked headlights)

• 1964–1965 Pontiac Tempest/LeMans or Oldsmobile F-85/Cutlass

  (foreground mid-size at garage)

• 1963–1964 Chevrolet full-size (background, behind the mid-size)

• 1961–1962 Chevrolet full-size (left side of photo, Carpenter’s Store)

Sources:

• Old Car Brochures

  https://www.oldcarbrochures.org

• Classic Car Database

  https://www.classiccardatabase.com

• Hemmings

  https://www.hemmings.com

• Flickr Car Spotting Groups

  Vintage Car Brochures” and “Car Spotting 1945–1975”

• IMCDb (Internet Movie Cars Database) –

  https://www.imcdb.org

Old Buildings:

Essential Guide to the West Hartford Historic District.
West Hartford on Wikipedia

Railroad Depot

White River Flood Photos:

After the 1927 flood. No sign of Route 14, cars, or the bridge, but the two stores survived.

Before the 1927 Flood, with the Carpenter Store, Harper Savage Lane (then Depot Street) and signpost to the right, and an inn on the left, just beyond the entrance to the West Hartford covered bridge, a bit west of the current bridge. Route 14 vanishes in the distance.

After Irene in 2011

Carpenter’s Store is gone.

But apparently the flood of 1867 was West Hartford’s worst:

from Historic Floods of New England (USGS, 1964)

From the Burlington Sentinel, March 1, 1867.
The details really bring the scene to life:

The bridge was built after the 1867 flood. It lasted 60 years until it, too, was lost in the more-well-known flood of 1927:

View looking west. It was rebuilt as a covered bridge with a Squared-Timber Lattice truss. Per the Vermont Journal (Windsor), September 16, 1871, the covered bridge at West Hartford had a 247-1/2 feet span without a pier.