West Haven ‘Hubbard Farms’ Exhibit Features Civil War Encampment

Written by Michael P. Walsh

WEST HAVEN, CT — A West Haven centennial exhibit will celebrate the legacy of the Hubbard family and farm with a Civil War encampment, children’s activities, food and live music.

The “Hubbard Farms” exhibit is set for 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday in Hubbard Farms Park, a 7.6-acre park with walking trails in West Shore’s Hubbard Road neighborhood. The rain date is Sunday.

Parking is available at Pagels Elementary School, 26 Benham Hill Road. People can access the park through a gate behind the school next to the playground.

Parking is also available on side streets and part of Hubbard Road. Police will close Hubbard Road from Honeypot to Jones Hill roads for the duration of the event.

The exhibit, presented by Hubbard family member Steven Johnstone, is part of the West Haven Centennial Celebration, a six-month series of free events commemorating the community’s 1921 birth and its incorporation by the General Assembly as Connecticut’s youngest municipality.

Classic rock band The Navels will kick off the festivities from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., followed by Top 40 music played by guitarist John Ciambriello from 2-3 p.m.

Children’s activities, sponsored by the City of West Haven Centennial Celebration Committee, will include balloon making and face painting by Picasso Parties of West Haven.

The encampment will feature a display of Civil War relics collected by the 8th Regiment Connecticut Volunteers, Company A, a Union Civil War living history and reenacting organization in Greater Connecticut.

Johnstone said members of the regiment will reproduce an authentic Civil War-era campsite in the wooded park and take questions and photos. At 3:30 p.m., the regiment will perform a musket salute — the event’s finale, he said.

According to Johnstone, the park property was a dairy and hay farm from the late 1700s until 1973, when his family sold the land to a local builder, who was unsuccessful in developing the property — the last remaining part of the farm that was not sold and developed. In the late ’70s, the property was sold to the city, which made it into a nature center in the mid-’90s, he said.

The Hubbard exhibit will include farm antiques and heirlooms handed down from generation to generation, as well as photos with descriptions chronicling the family farm and ice skating pond.

Along with Hubbards in the military, the exhibit will showcase reunions, including photos from the family’s 150th annual gathering in 2006, and last year’s extensive park restoration.

After a five-month cleanup led by Johnstone, the park, formerly the Hubbard Nature and Education Center, was officially renamed Hubbard Farms Park and reopened Sept. 29, 2020.

“A lot of people are going to be surprised when they show up this weekend,” said Johnstone, the president of the Hubbard Family Association. “During the entire park revitalization, dozens of people have approached me on how they grew up here skating on the pond. It’s not exactly the same of what people grew up with, but it’s a great improvement of what’s been here the last 20-plus years.

“It’s going to be a flashback in time for many between how much of the park has been cleaned and the history exhibits themselves. The other thing I'm looking forward to is that this is going to be the first event for the West Shore as far back as I can remember. It’s a chance for districts 9 and 10 to really come together and celebrate the rich history that the land has that many are unaware of.”

All labor and materials to reestablish the park’s trails, clear brush and debris, add new and refurbish existing fencing, and beautify the main entrance were provided by sponsors at no cost to the city, said Johnstone, who owns Hubbard Farm’s Wood and Snow LLC of West Haven.

In addition to the sponsors’ support, more than $11,000 of in-kind and monetary contributions were made by over a dozen businesses.

Johnstone noted the restoration was also made possible by three dozen volunteers who contributed more than 350 hours to the park’s rehabilitation.

Mayor Nancy R. Rossi, the centennial committee’s honorary chairwoman, said the exhibit will join a long list of special events observing West Haven’s secession from Orange a century ago, including the Centennial Boat Parade in June, the Centennial Savin Rock Festival in July and the Centennial Fireworks on Sept. 3. The rural and residential sections of Orange separated in 1921 when the residential part, West Haven, became the state’s youngest town.

Johnstone and executive chef Dana Loehn, a West Haven resident who owns Creative Kitchen & Catering of Shelton, have created a centennial- and farm-themed menu featuring a variety of made-to-order items, including The Hub, a jumbo hot dog heaped with pepper relish, spicy brown mustard, chili, cheese and onion crisps for $8.

Other items prepared by Loehn will include District 10 — a hand-formed beef patty set over lettuce, tomato, onion and pickle and heaped with American cheese, mustard, mayonnaise, ketchup and garlic chips for $10 — and The Centennial, Creative’s slow-braised brown sugar pork heaped over smashed potato, topped with coleslaw and crowned with corn muffin for $8.

Creative will offer a $5 kids meal — a hot dog, hamburger or cheeseburger with chips and a juice box — as well as an all-beef hot dog for $4 and a hand-formed smash burger with American cheese, lettuce and tomato for $6.

Creative will also offer $4 desserts — The Strawberry Patch, a strawberry parfait, and The Brown Cow, a chocolate parfait — along with soda, bottled water and candy for $1.

The exhibit and food tents are sponsored by the Yale University West Campus.

In the spirit of West Haven’s birthday, committee Chairwoman Beth A. Sabo will sell centennial coins, lapel pins and WestHavenOpoly, the centennial version of the board game Monopoly.

All merchandise proceeds generated by the committee will offset expenses and support the $50,000 centennial budget approved by the City Council, said Sabo, the city’s commissioner of human resources.

For other centennial merchandise, visit the official online store here.

The store, hosted by West Haven vendor West Shore Associates, sells such centennial-branded merchandise as long- and short-sleeved T-shirts, hooded sweatshirts, stainless steel tumblers, stemless wine glasses, insulated beverage bottles, ceramic mugs, retro sunglasses, canvas and cotton tote bags, eco-performance face masks, and pigment-dyed twill and mesh trucker caps.

A portion of the vendor’s merchandise proceeds will support the centennial account, Sabo said.

For a complete list of centennial events, see the schedule here.