West Hartford Road Name Honors Black Revolutionary War Hero

WEST HARTFORD, CT — As America celebrates its birthday this weekend, one civil rights hero from the Revolutionary War was honored by the town's plan and zoning commission earlier in June by having a street named in his honor.

As a result, Sycamore Lane in West Hartford will now be known as Peleg Nott Lane following the PZC's 3-1 June 6 vote.

But not everyone is pleased with the change.

A petition and several pages of signatures was filed to the town by local student Isaias Wooden, a recent graduate of Kingswood-Oxford School in town, seeking the new street name.

According to the petition, Peleg Nott, born in 1750, was a slave in Hartford until he was freed in 1780.

During the American Revolution, Nott "served by driving provision carts for the Commissary for both the Patriot and French troops," reads the petition seeking the change.

This required him to travel up and down the eastern seaboard as America fought for its Independence, according to the petition.

After the war, Nott managed the estate of his enslaver, Jeremiah Wadsworth in West Hartford, which was then known as the "West Division of Hartford," reads the petition.

According to the petition, Nott was the "negro governor" of Hartford and served that job for, perhaps, two decades. He died in 1810.

"Naming Sycamore Lane after Peleg Nott would help restore his name to history," reads the petition.

"At this time, none of the 600 streets in this town are consciously named after people of African descent," reads the petition.

According to Wooden, Sycamore Lane is on the land where Nott was enslaved.

"Changing the name of Sycamore Lane, which has only one address, and could be confused with Sycamore Road, to Peleg Nott Lane is the right thing to do," he wrote.

Ultimately, the PZC agreed, voting 3-1 to change the name of the road, "the proposal established a historic connection and significance to the renaming of Sycamore Lane to Peleg Nott Lane," according to meeting minutes.

The push to rename the road was part of a class project at Kingswood-Oxford, a private school for middle and high school students in West Hartford.

Submitted to the PZC, however, were several letters of opposition to the name change.

The letter writers didn't oppose the reason behind the name change, but rather the difficulties folks living in that area would have having to adjust to a new road name.

Some, even, suggested a road name wasn't enough to honor Nott.

"Peleg Nott was a governor, renaming the West Hartford Town Hall Building would be a much better and more visible way to achieve this," wrote resident and road change critic Olin West.

For the minutes of the June 6 West Hartford Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, click on this link.

For an Kingswood-Oxford report on the history project behind the road name, visit this link.

To read the letters of opposition submitted to the Town of West Hartford, visit this link.