The following are digital photographic copies of original historical images and postcards, primarily of the early railway stations in Bloomfield, CT. Our sincere thanks to Laura Smith of the Thomas J Dodd Research Center at the University of Connecticut at Storrs for her kind assistance in locating the files in their archives, containing these images. This page is still a work-in-progress!! If anyone has additional information on the stations marked as "Exact location unknown," or any details on the "missing" Cottage Grove Station," (or additional historical photos), by all means please email me so it can be added here, with proper credit of course! Many thanks!       

- Dennis A. Hubbs, September, 2013                                                   Updated June 29, 2018

The images are posted here for historical purposes only...

 The original Bloomfield, CT Railway Station, along the still-existing Griffin Line tracks. The Old Farmers Exchange was to the right (see below)! The rail line, originally established in 1871, ran under a number of different names - the first being the Connecticut Western Railroad. The station was removed in 1940.

"Griffins " Station...Located in the area of present-day Day Hill Road

"Barnard's Station"

This image of Barnard's Station was marked "Looking west from Duncaster." The date was marked "10-12-193"...so sometime in the 1930s...Location must have been where the line crossed Duncaster Road, between Scotland & Tariffville Roads...Please see map here where you can clearly see the old railbed...

From Stephen Janowetch:

Station at "Hoskins, Conn." Exact location unknown and not likely in Bloomfield but on or near the area of Hoskins and Tariffville Roads in Simsbury, where Route 315 crosses Routes 10 and 202...Not far from the Bloomfield town line however!  The tracks in Bloomfield turned west through Simsbury and beyond, having crossed the Farmington River. That bridge was the site of the "Great Tariffville Train Wreck" of 1878...Click here for some great photos of the disaster, which, unfortunately, killed off the rail line soon after...

One of the very few photographs of the Trolley line in Bloomfield...

Hartford Avenue (now Bloomfield Avenue), as it was called from the 1800s to the early 1920s...

The "freight house" above became the Farmer's Exchange eventually. The exchange was torn down a few years ago. Only a small shed still remains as the property awaits redevelopment.

Another photo of the Bloomfield Station...The CNE - the Central New England Railway - was acquired by the NY, NH & Hartford RR in 1904, having run from 1899 to 1927. It operated independently as the CNE until the latter date, when it fully merged with the NY, NH & Hartford...

Not sure of the orientation mentioned above...it appears this is looking west, since the tracks run north and south here...

The cemetery mislabeled above is actually part of Old St. Andrews Church on Tariffville Road, (which is to the left of the tracks). Image was taken October 25, 1924...While it cannot be seen in the photo above, there was another tiny rail station near Old St. Andrews church, even smaller than Barnard's!

This was the summer hotel, at or near (??) the Cottage Grove Railway Station - a 10 room facility run by a Mr. Beauford. It advertised in the New York City area papers as being "In the country, right on the train route. Private bathing for men and women." In fact, the only bathing was at Beaman Brook, amongst several clumps of bushes - one for men and the other for women. Thanks to Ralph Schmoll and Angela Hauptman for the above information, from their 2011 revised edition of Over Tunxis Trails! The Williams family purchased the old house in 1965, where their 12 siblings grew up. By the end of the 1970s, this building, as all the others on Goodman Street, either burned or was torn down...The road is now chained off, empty and desolate...Such a shame!!!

Directly below: From Bette Rosenthal - a summertime shot with the old hotel in the background, dated 1961 (with Jan and Alan enjoying the pool...obviously not in February! (Thanks Bette!!):

From Karen Kendall Williams:

"The Goodman Hotel was located directly across from the Bercowetz home. There is a pine tree still standing and that was the driveway entrance. The home was occupied by the Williams family from December of 1965 thru June of 1978. It became too old and needed too much work thus it was no longer livable. It burned down in the summer of 1978."

A final view of the station in Bloomfield Center...There are plans to convert the old railbed, north of the line's end by Day Hill Road, to a bike path that will eventually become part of the East Coast Greenway. The path will take riders over a new bridge crossing Griffin Brook, (on this satellite map, you can clearly see the brook, where it crosses the railbed, to the west of Tariffville Road). This is where the original 1870s bridge abutments still exist...and in good shape!

To see what the old rail bed looked like prior to NE Utilities (Eversource) changes several years back, from Duncaster Road north (it still offers a great walk!!), please click here.

Still in use...A locomotive sits at what remains of the Bloomfield Farmer's Exchange in Bloomfield Center on June 29, 2018...Trains have used the line since it's inception in 1871... (Image by Dennis A. Hubbs)

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These original images and postcards (except as noted) were culled from the Francis D. Donovan Papers, the Stickels (Dudley) Photograph Collection of the Central New England Railway and the Leroy Roberts Railroad Station Photographs Collection at the library of the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, Uconn - Storrs. Thanks for their kind assistance in locating these rare treasures!