West Hartford is home to regular events which draw large crowds from neighboring towns, including the Elizabeth Park Concert Series,[3] and the annual Celebrate West Hartford event, which includes fairground rides, food vendors, musical performances, and stalls by local businesses.

Evidence still remains of the Town's first industry, as Stephen Hosmer's mill pond and dam can still be found today on the westernmost side of North Main Street.

By the time of the American Revolution, the once rugged wilderness had been largely clear and a new agricultural-based community had developed with a population of just over 1,000 residents and 3,000 sheep.

As the focus of early religious, political, and social life, the meeting house helped to provide this area with a name, a title that it still holds today—"The Center."

Evidence in the Hartford Courant and in the 1790s census show that some of the more prosperous households relied on laborers and slaves for fieldwork and domestic help.

Producing utilitarian items such as jugs for the gin manufactured in local distilleries, to terra cotta designs and fine china, the Goodwin Company employed up to 75 people in its heyday.

By the late 19th century, the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad ran through part of Elmwood in the southeast corner of town.

Then came the trolleys—starting in 1845, Fred Brace began running a horse-drawn omnibus from his home on the corner of Farmington Avenue and Dale Street into downtown Hartford.

Prospect Hill, situated on a one-mile-long (1.6 km) ridge boasting impressive views of the burgeoning city, became the area's most prestigious address.

Prospect Avenue is adjacent to Elizabeth Park, designed by acclaimed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted in 1896 and named for the wife of Charles M. Pond, who bequeathed the land to the City of Hartford.

[10] In 1895, Wood, Harmon and Company created one of the town's first subdivisions on property known as Stanley Farm, a tract sloping upward from the trolley line that then ran along Farmington Avenue, across from Reservoir No.

Located on the former estate of Cornelius Vanderbilt, son of the famous financier and transportation magnet, it was the brainchild of Horace R. Grant.

In the 1950s, the primary avenues—Albany, Asylum and Farmington—became important arteries for commuters, and the access made West Hartford attractive to middle-class families.

The interstate had many ramifications on the community, the most visible was that it bisected the town, isolating the more industrial and ethnically diverse neighborhood of Elmwood with a physical barrier from the rest of West Hartford.

Subsequent residential development continued on through the late 1970s, particularly in the town's northern, western and far southwestern fringes, as evidenced by the many large colonial, ranch, and split level-style homes in these areas.

Woolworth, and Doubleday Book Shop drew shoppers from across the region; the Center with its largely independently owned stores, were negatively impacted by the new retail traffic patterns.

Opened in 1974 with original anchors JC Penney, G. Fox & Co., and Sage-Allen, the mall further recalibrated retail in West Hartford.

Sitting astride I-84, conveniently connected to the town's main internal arteries, and comprising more than 1,300,000 square feet (120,000 m2) of stores and restaurants, it is the third largest indoor mall in Connecticut.

West Hartford justified the zoning as intended to raise property values and keep undesirable groups out of the locality.

[17] Alongside zoning, neighborhoods in West Hartford used racial covenants that prevented non-whites from owning or occupying buildings (until they were ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1948).

[18] In 1983, a robbery was committed by a militant Puerto Rican group called "Los Macheteros" where they robbed a Wells Fargo depot situated in West Hartford, netting $7 million.

[20] Opening in 2007, Blue Back Square is a pioneer mixed-use development in the Center that blends retail and residential living space on a large scale.

[21] Named after Noah Webster's popular spelling book, Blue-Back Speller, the development has significantly altered the Center and furthered West Hartford's status as a regional dining and shopping destination.

Notable features of the Metacomet Ridge in West Hartford include Talcott Mountain and a number of highland water reservoirs belonging to the Metropolitan District, which maintains watershed and recreation resources on the property.

Of these, 31.74% were Roman Catholic, 3.29% Presbyterian, 2.19% Baptist, 2.19% Methodist, 1.59% Jewish, 1.39% Lutheran, 1.31% Episcopalian, 1.19% Pentecostal, 0.4% Mormon, 3.38% of another Christian denomination, and 0.34% were Muslim.

[35] In 2019 Governor Lamont's CT2030 transportation investment plan, which included tolling cars and trucks in 14 locations, was soundly rejected by Republicans and Democrats, leaving less funding for rail projects.

CTfastrak, Connecticut's first bus rapid transit corridor, opened in 2015, providing a separated right-of-way between Hartford and New Britain.

The elementary schools are Aiken, Braeburn, Bugbee, Charter Oak, Duffy, Morley, Norfeldt, Smith, Webster Hill, Whiting Lane and Wolcott.

On February 23, 2015, the rivalry went too far when a fight occurred between both teams at the varsity basketball game held at Hall High School.

The 76th Division was reconstituted in October 1946 and reactivated in November of that year as a part of the Organized Reserve, and was headquartered in West Hartford, Connecticut.