Mayberry Village

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Mayberry Village was built in 1941 on what was the Cannon family farm to house the influx of people who worked at Pratt and Whitney and other defense industries in Connecticut. The upper section of mostly multiple-unit construction was built first and then the “New Village”, single and duplex units, was built. The complex was named after Doctor Mayberry, a local physician who was killed while crossing railroad tracks under Burnham Street in East Hartford.

The original neighborhood, bordered by Home Terrace, Highview, Edgewood and Arbutus streets, was called Laurel Park Heights, named after the trolley park that was located where Sunset Hills was developed in the late 50's. Old trolley tracks can still be seen in the Hockanum River Gorge. In 1956, the units were offered for sale to those people living within them. Many of these families did buy their houses and rented the other apartments to the people who continued to live there.

Once a prominent area, after the decline of the Pratt & Whitney airplane engine manufacturing plant, the area declined and its population gradually became low-income. The village is home to Labor Field, which contains a baseball park, and to Franklin H. Mayberry Elementary School.