Address: East Hampton Road / SR 66
Contemporary Name: Marlboro Cemetery
Historic Name: Marlboro Cemetery
Present Use: Cemetery
Historic Use: Cemetery
Date constructed: Mid 19th century
Materials: Schist, brownstone, marble, granite
Size: 3.88 acres
Description: (Exterior) Marlboro Cemetery has upwards of 500 markers, including a dozen or more marble and brownstone obelisks. The stones are arranged in north-south rows, perpendicular to East Hampton Road. Memorials to the west generally date from the 19th century, those to the east from the 20th/late 20th century. The majority of the stones in the western section are segmentally topped, from the mid 19th century. The range of dates for the historic monuments is wide, from 1817 for an example in marble which carries the year 1815 to a large polished-granite sarcophagus of 1893.
Significance: While Marlboro Cemetery is newer than Century Cemetery, there is much overlap in the dates on the monuments. Some of the overlap is occasioned by the fact that interments were moved to Marlboro from Fawn Brook Cemetery on the southeast corner of South Main Street and Kellogg Road a the time that burying ground was essentially destroyed. Marlboro is larger, and has more late 20th century stones than Century. Both have good examples of monuments created in a variety of materials and artistic treatments representative of current practice and taste at time they were erected.
Sources: Ransom, David. Historical and Architectural Resources Survey, Town of Marlborough, Connecticut. April 1998.
Notes:

Address: South Main Street
Contemporary Name: Century Cemetery
Historic Name: Century Cemetery
Present Use: Cemetery
Historic Use: Cemetery
Date constructed: c. 1800
Materials: Brownstone, schist, slate, marble, granite, zinc
Size: .87 acres
Description: Century Cemetery has about 500 markers, arranged in rows running north-south parallel with South Main Street. The oldest, which are concentrated on the west side and start as early as 1781, are round-headed schist stones carved with shoulders and death’s heads. Rectangular schist stones decorated only with incised script dating roughly from 1795 to 1831 are nearby. Round-headed brownstone markers from the turn of the 19th century, to the east, are carved with volutes and foliate borders. Several are deteriorated and crumbling, the brownstone substance having lost its binder. Segmentally topped marble monuments number in quantity during the first quarter of the 19th century. There are two marble obelisks from the third quarter of the 19th century and two brownstone obelisks from the fourth quarter. The cemetery has two metal objects. One is the gate in the center of the stone wall along South Main Street. It is composed of wrought-iron pickets and cast-iron posts. The other is the zinc monument of the type made by the Monumental Bronze Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut, although this one is not signed. It is a typical example of the firm’s Neo-Classical Revival/Baroque work. In general, the cemetery is well-maintained. Some stones are broken off; some have been repaired; there is little indication of vandalism. Many stones are covered with black crusts and biological growth. The encircling stone wall is tall, deep, and in good repair. Hall refers to the cemetery as the “old burying ground,” and mentions that the circumferential wall was built prior to 1846 and re-laid in 1846.
Significance: Century Cemetery displays good examples of the 19th century memorial markers in the schist, slate, brownstone, and marble popular at the time. Most stones post-date the 18th century’s heavily carved symbols of angels, death’s head and homespun homilies and legends. It appears that this is Marlborough’s first town-wide cemetery, earlier burials having been made in the older towns of Glastonbury, Colchester, and Hebron from which Marlborough was formed and in family cemeteries (see, for example, the Finley Cemetery on West Street). Many interments later in the 19th century and through the 20th century were made in another town-owned location known as Marlboro Cemetery.
Sources: Hall, Mary. Report of the Celebration of the Centennial of the Incorporation of the Town of Marlborough. 1904.
Ransom, David. Historical and Architectural Resources Survey, Town of Marlborough, Connecticut. April 1998.
Notes:

Address: 26 North Main Street
Contemporary Name: Veterans Memorial
Historic Name:
Present Use: Memorial
Historic Use:
Date constructed: 1985
Approximate Dimensions:
Overall Structure: 5 ft. 9 in. high; 13 ft. 5 in. wide; 3 ft. deep
Description: The Marlborough Veterans Memorial is a shallow bow-shaped masonry structure built of stone pavers with a half hipped roof of bluestone. The front wall of the structure is three-sided, like a bay window. It is embellished by a bas relief sculpture and flanking plaques. The central bas relief sculpture depicts a World War II soldier against a background which is a 13-star flag of the early republic held by a Revolutionary War soldier. The staff of the flag is inclined to the left, forming the left border of the sculpture, while its top is folded over at the right corner, forming an irregular shape. (For a similar treatment of soldiers on a background of a flag whose shape forms the outline of the sculpture, see “Memorial to Five Wars”, Lebanon, Connecticut). The flanking square plaques are inset in the stone and covered with clear sheet plastic. Medallions of the American Legion, American Legion Auxiliary, and Veterans of Foreign Wars adorn the wall. The Marlborough sculpture and flanking plaques are molded cast plastic colored brown, not bronze. The Veterans Memorial at Town Hall is successor to an earlier veterans’ memorial which continues to stand about 200 yards to the south at the intersection point of North Main Street, Jones Hollow Road, and Hebron Road / SR 66. The earlier monument is a rough stone slab bearing two plaques.
Artistic Significance: The Marlborough Veterans Memorial was designed by William R. Nystrom, a local resident and veterans, who was an artist as well as an employee of Pratt & Whitney Aircraft, East Hartford, Connecticut. Nystrom also designed seals for the Town of Marlborough, the Library, and the Historical Society, and as well illustrated Florence S. Lord’s publication about the town. Cast plastic rather than traditional bronze was chosen as the material for the decorative components of the memorial for reasons of cost. The sculpture of the tow soldiers from the waist up is in high relief, vigorous, and realistic. The uniform and equipment details appear to be accurate. Whether the artist was influenced by the similar grouping on Lebanon’s “Memorial to Five Wars” (1923), 13 miles to the east, is not known, but due to the geographic proximity, seems likely.
Historic Significance: The Marlborough Veterans Memorial was erected in 1985 in front of the Town Hall about two years after the present building was rehabilitated to serve the purpose. Nystrom is credited with being the driving force leading to action on the part of the Town Council to erect the monument. The building which now houses the Town Hall was built in 1949 as the Mary Hall School (Alfred Reinhardt, architect). When it was converted to Town Hall in 1983, the town vacated a building which stood next door but one to the south at 8 North Main Street on the point of land bordered by Jones Hollow Road, Hebron Road, and North Main Street. The 1954 plaque stands at the front (south end) of the site of this earlier frame town hall building, which was constructed in 1916 to replace the 1841 Methodist Church building destroyed by fire in 1914. After the Methodist Church membership dwindled, the building was leased in 1924 to the Library Association which was formed that year under the leadership of Mary Hall (1843-1927), who in 1882 was the first woman admitted to the Connecticut bar and for whom the 1949 school later was named. The Library bought the building in 1927 and built a brick addition to the south end in 1935, then in 1957 leased all the building except for the addition to the Town of Marlborough for use as the town hall. The town hall moved to the school in 1983, the Library moved to its new building in 1987 and the vacant Methodist Church/Library/Town Hall building was demolished in 1998.
Sources: Baber, David. Capitol Region Council of Governments Historic Resource Survey of Marlborough, 1978.
Hall, Mary. Report of the Celebration of the Centennial of the Incorporation of the Town of Marlborough. 1904.
Lord, Florence Sorenson. Marlborough, 1747-1977. Compiled by Violet Schwarzmann, illustrated by William Nystrom. 1993.
Ransom, David. Historical and Architectural Resources Survey, Town of Marlborough, Connecticut. April 1998.
Notes:

Address: West Road
Contemporary Name: Finley Family Cemetery
Historic Name: Finley Family Cemetery
Present Use: Cemetery
Historic Use: Cemetery
Date constructed: 1783-1863 (Baber)
Materials: Schist, marble, brownstone, granite
Size: .24 acre
Description: The approximately 65 stones of the Finley Family Cemetery are in the eastern two-thirds of the parcel. The western one-third is vacant. The monuments are lined up in rows running in the north-south direction. Most of the stones are schist in rectangular, segmental, and tombstone shapes. The predominant family names on the stones are Finley and Chamberlin. Many are carved; for instance, three Chamberlin stones dates 1789 are 1790 display arched tops carved with death’s heads, shoulders, foliate borders, and incised lettering. The Esther Finley and John Finley memorials both are carved schist but reflect changing tastes in funerary arts at the turn of the 19th century. Esther Finley, 1794, displays foliate vertical borders under the shoulders and winged death’s head in the arch in the traditional 18th century mode. John Finley, a somewhat larger stone of 1807, is still schist but with stylized vertical borders and an early 19th century urn in the arch, thereby reflecting contemporary evolving preference in funerary art. Dozens of other stones are similar. One schist stone of 1813 features the urn-and-willow motif. Several stones are broken off. Many are covered with biological growth and black crusts. On the whole, however, the cemetery is reasonably well maintained.
Significance: The Finley Family Cemetery is significant because of its many carved schist stones and because of the uniformity of appearance and character of the stones. Most turn-of-the-18th century cemeteries display monuments of brownstone, slate, schist, and marble in more-or-less equal proportions. Here almost all the stones are schist, an unusual uniformity. Elaborate carving of tombstones with such features as death’s heads, decorated shoulders, foliate borders, and incised legends proliferate in brownstone, which was easier to carve because it is soft. The large collection of schist stones with carving of this character in the Finley Family Cemetery is unusual. Continued preference for schist in this cemetery into the 19th century is demonstrated by the 19th century urn-and-willow design of 1813 executed in schist. The cemetery’s location about a quarter of a mile east of Jones Hollow Road suggests a Jones connection. Samuel Finley Jones, for who Jones Hollow Road was named, provides such relationship.
Sources: Baber, David. Capitol Region Council of Governments Historic Resource Survey of Marlborough, 1978.
Ransom, David. Historical and Architectural Resources Survey, Town of Marlborough, Connecticut. April 1998.
Notes:

Image: Tennant postcard of "The Lake," c.1910.
Description: Terramuggus Lake is town-owned. It has an area of 83 acres, a maximum depth of 43 feet and a mean depth of 21.4 feet. Homes have been built around most of the lake, and much of the remaining area is used for municipal or lake association beaches. The lake has a public boat launch open to Marlborough residents, but motors greater than 3.3 hp are banned. Terramuggus is an oligotrophic lake with low diversity and low abundance of aquatic plants. Only seven submerged species were found in the lake during a July 2004 survey, all of them native plants. Plants grew sparsely in widely scattered patches; some areas supported filamentous algae or Charaphyte, but no plants or algae at all grew on much of the lake bottom.
Sources: Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station website: http://www.ct.gov/caes/cwp/view.asp?a=2799&q=376144
Image from the Historical Collection at the Richmond Memorial Library
Notes:

Image: Copy print of postcard, "Lake Terramuggus, Marlborough, Conn." From the Town Beach, looking South. C. 1905
Description: Terramuggus Lake is town-owned. It has an area of 83 acres, a maximum depth of 43 feet and a mean depth of 21.4 feet. Homes have been built around most of the lake, and much of the remaining area is used for municipal or lake association beaches. The lake has a public boat launch open to Marlborough residents, but motors greater than 3.3 hp are banned. Terramuggus is an oligotrophic lake with low diversity and low abundance of aquatic plants. Only seven submerged species were found in the lake during a July 2004 survey, all of them native plants. Plants grew sparsely in widely scattered patches; some areas supported filamentous algae or Charaphyte, but no plants or algae at all grew on much of the lake bottom.
Sources: Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station website: http://www.ct.gov/caes/cwp/view.asp?a=2799&q=376144
Image from the Historical Collection at the Richmond Memorial Library
Notes:

Image: Hughes Postcard, "A bit of Lake Terramuggus, Marlborough, Conn." c. 1925
Description: Terramuggus Lake is town-owned. It has an area of 83 acres, a maximum depth of 43 feet and a mean depth of 21.4 feet. Homes have been built around most of the lake, and much of the remaining area is used for municipal or lake association beaches. The lake has a public boat launch open to Marlborough residents, but motors greater than 3.3 hp are banned. Terramuggus is an oligotrophic lake with low diversity and low abundance of aquatic plants. Only seven submerged species were found in the lake during a July 2004 survey, all of them native plants. Plants grew sparsely in widely scattered patches; some areas supported filamentous algae or Charaphyte, but no plants or algae at all grew on much of the lake bottom.
Sources: Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station website: http://www.ct.gov/caes/cwp/view.asp?a=2799&q=376144
Image from the Historical Collection at the Richmond Memorial Library
Notes:

Image: Hughes postcard, "Blish Cottage, Lake Terramuggus, Marlborough, Conn." c. 1925
Description: The Blish family owned and operated cottages on the lake and rented them out to vacationers. Most of these cottages are no longer standing. Terramuggus Lake is town-owned. It has an area of 83 acres, a maximum depth of 43 feet and a mean depth of 21.4 feet. Homes have been built around most of the lake, and much of the remaining area is used for municipal or lake association beaches. The lake has a public boat launch open to Marlborough residents, but motors greater than 3.3 hp are banned. Terramuggus is an oligotrophic lake with low diversity and low abundance of aquatic plants. Only seven submerged species were found in the lake during a July 2004 survey, all of them native plants. Plants grew sparsely in widely scattered patches; some areas supported filamentous algae or Charaphyte, but no plants or algae at all grew on much of the lake bottom.
Sources: Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station website: http://www.ct.gov/caes/cwp/view.asp?a=2799&q=376144
Image from the Historical Collection at the Richmond Memorial Library
Notes:

Image: Copy print of the pavilion, c. 1935.
Description: The Blish Family owned and operated the pavilion and cottages on the Lake for several years. The current Pavilion is located on the spot of this historic pavilion. Terramuggus Lake is town-owned. It has an area of 83 acres, a maximum depth of 43 feet and a mean depth of 21.4 feet. Homes have been built around most of the lake, and much of the remaining area is used for municipal or lake association beaches. The lake has a public boat launch open to Marlborough residents, but motors greater than 3.3 hp are banned. Terramuggus is an oligotrophic lake with low diversity and low abundance of aquatic plants. Only seven submerged species were found in the lake during a July 2004 survey, all of them native plants. Plants grew sparsely in widely scattered patches; some areas supported filamentous algae or Charaphyte, but no plants or algae at all grew on much of the lake bottom.
Sources: Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station website: http://www.ct.gov/caes/cwp/view.asp?a=2799&q=376144
Image from the Historical Collection at the Richmond Memorial Library
Notes: Note that the roof of the pavilion has tiles that make out the word, "Bath House".

Image: Postcard, "Lake Terramuggus, Marlborough, Conn." From the Hall Beach, the southwest corner of the lake. c. 1955.
Description: Terramuggus Lake is town-owned. It has an area of 83 acres, a maximum depth of 43 feet and a mean depth of 21.4 feet. Homes have been built around most of the lake, and much of the remaining area is used for municipal or lake association beaches. The lake has a public boat launch open to Marlborough residents, but motors greater than 3.3 hp are banned. Terramuggus is an oligotrophic lake with low diversity and low abundance of aquatic plants. Only seven submerged species were found in the lake during a July 2004 survey, all of them native plants. Plants grew sparsely in widely scattered patches; some areas supported filamentous algae or Charaphyte, but no plants or algae at all grew on much of the lake bottom.
Sources: Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station website: http://www.ct.gov/caes/cwp/view.asp?a=2799&q=376144
Image from the Historical Collection at the Richmond Memorial Library
Notes:

Image: Print of a ski plane on Lake Terramuggus. c.1947.
Description: Terramuggus Lake is town-owned. It has an area of 83 acres, a maximum depth of 43 feet and a mean depth of 21.4 feet. Homes have been built around most of the lake, and much of the remaining area is used for municipal or lake association beaches. The lake has a public boat launch open to Marlborough residents, but motors greater than 3.3 hp are banned. Terramuggus is an oligotrophic lake with low diversity and low abundance of aquatic plants. Only seven submerged species were found in the lake during a July 2004 survey, all of them native plants. Plants grew sparsely in widely scattered patches; some areas supported filamentous algae or Charaphyte, but no plants or algae at all grew on much of the lake bottom.
Sources: Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station website: http://www.ct.gov/caes/cwp/view.asp?a=2799&q=376144
Image from the Historical Collection at the Richmond Memorial Library
Notes:

Image: Postcard looking out from the public beach to the east shore, unknown date.
Description: Terramuggus Lake is town-owned. It has an area of 83 acres, a maximum depth of 43 feet and a mean depth of 21.4 feet. Homes have been built around most of the lake, and much of the remaining area is used for municipal or lake association beaches. The lake has a public boat launch open to Marlborough residents, but motors greater than 3.3 hp are banned. Terramuggus is an oligotrophic lake with low diversity and low abundance of aquatic plants. Only seven submerged species were found in the lake during a July 2004 survey, all of them native plants. Plants grew sparsely in widely scattered patches; some areas supported filamentous algae or Charaphyte, but no plants or algae at all grew on much of the lake bottom.
Sources: Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station website: http://www.ct.gov/caes/cwp/view.asp?a=2799&q=376144
Image from the Historical Collection at the Richmond Memorial Library
Notes:

Address: Rt. 66, east of Rt. 2 toward Hebron
Date: first painted in the late 1980s.
Notes: This rock is well known, and is signed by a local artist named, "Sawyer". The signature has multiple dates, indicating the re-painting of this memorable landmark.

Address: Rt. 66, just west of Marlborough center, toward East Hampton.
Date: first painted in the early 2000s.
Notes: This new landmark is not as well know as Eagle Rock, but you definitely can't miss it as you drive into Marlborough from the west. There is no information about the artist at this time.

This is an image of the interior of Walker's Store, with Johnny Walker, taken around 1922. We are currently unsure of where exactly his store was located.

Address: The 5 Corners, across the street from the Methodist Church
Date: 1925.
Notes: Ofshay's General Store was an institution in the center of Marlborough for about 60 years. Seven months after the building was purchased, it burned down. The Ofshay Brother's rebuilt, and continued on, with one of the brother's son's joining in the family business. Today, the Ofshay's no longer own the store on the corner, but many in town still call it "Ofshay's".

Address: The 5 Corners
Date: 1970.
Notes: Ofshay's General Store was an institution in the center of Marlborough for about 60 years. Seven months after the building was purchased, it burned down. The Ofshay Brother's rebuilt, and continued on, with one of the brother's son's joining in the family business. Today, the Ofshay's no longer own the store on the corner, but many in town still call it "Ofshay's".

Map Name: Marlborough
Date of map: 1869
Description: Colored map of Marlborough, showing businesses, schools and districts, and homes. Also includes inset of the Marlborough Mills area in the north end of the town.
Sources: Collection of the Marlborough Historical Society
Notes: Original map taken from, “Atlas of Hartford City and County: with a map of Connecticut, from actual surveys”. Baker & Tilden, 1869.

Name: Marlborough Town Seal
Date of map: 1985
Description: Official town seal, designed by WWII veteran Bill Nystrom
Sources: Collection of the Marlborough Historical Society, image from Joe Giggey.
Notes:

Name: The Good Will Club
Date of image: c. 1920
Significance: Mary Hall, who became the first female lawyer in Connecticut, later founded the Good Will Club, an organization which housed young, wayward boys. She also founded a camp in Marlborough, where these young men would come for two weeks. This image shows some of the club members in front of the "chow hall". It was originally located on East Hampton Road / Route 66, about where the Liberty Bank is today.
Sources: Collection of the Marlborough Historical Society
Notes: Today, the Good Will Club is still in operation as is known as the Boys and Girls Club of Hartford.

Route 2 follows the path of two 19th-century turnpikes: the Hartford and New London, dating from 1800, and the Colchester and Norwich, dating from 1805. These turnpikes collected tolls for about 50 years.

Route 2 had several names in the 20th century, including NE-17. But, it was during the 1950s, when construction began to make Route 2 into the highway it is today.

In Marlborough, Route 2 once ran through the center of town, with North and South Main Streets. The new highway would run just to the east of the center, and include several on and off ramps to access Marlborough. The new Route 2 would run through the "Ten Curves" or "Dark Hollow" area of Marlborough. The curves were straightened, but parts of the original road can still be seen at times in the brush.

The road was completed in sections, with
# Route 17 to West Road, Marlborough, completed Oct. 15, 1964. Portions were only 2 lanes wide, though.
# West Road to Route 66 completed in 1966
# Route 66 to South Main St (exit 15) completed in 1964
# South Main St to Prospect Hill Road (near exit 17), Colchester completed in 1959.

One of the oddities of Route 2 that Marlborough can claim is the absence of Exit 14. Supposedly, it was to create a Route 66 bypass around the center of Marlborough. When it became too cost prohibitive, the idea was abandoned.

Sources: http://www.kurumi.com/roads/ct/ct2.html

Route 2 follows the path of two 19th-century turnpikes: the Hartford and New London, dating from 1800, and the Colchester and Norwich, dating from 1805. These turnpikes collected tolls for about 50 years.

Route 2 had several names in the 20th century, including NE-17. But, it was during the 1950s, when construction began to make Route 2 into the highway it is today.

In Marlborough, Route 2 once ran through the center of town, with North and South Main Streets. The new highway would run just to the east of the center, and include several on and off ramps to access Marlborough. The new Route 2 would run through the "Ten Curves" or "Dark Hollow" area of Marlborough. The curves were straightened, but parts of the original road can still be seen at times in the brush.

The road was completed in sections, with
# Route 17 to West Road, Marlborough, completed Oct. 15, 1964. Portions were only 2 lanes wide, though.
# West Road to Route 66 completed in 1966
# Route 66 to South Main St (exit 15) completed in 1964
# South Main St to Prospect Hill Road (near exit 17), Colchester completed in 1959.

One of the oddities of Route 2 that Marlborough can claim is the absence of Exit 14. Supposedly, it was to create a Route 66 bypass around the center of Marlborough. When it became too cost prohibitive, the idea was abandoned.

Sources: http://www.kurumi.com/roads/ct/ct2.html

Map Name: Marlborough Mills
Date of map: 1869
Description: Inset from colored map of Marlborough, showing businesses, schools and districts, and homes. The inset shows the Marlborough Mills area in the north end of the town.
Sources: Collection of the Marlborough Historical Society
Notes: Original map taken from, “Atlas of Hartford City and County: with a map of Connecticut, from actual surveys”. Baker & Tilden, 1869.