Mayberry Village is an urban area in east central East Hartford, Connecticut, US. 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. The Sunset Hills area is often erroneously considered part of Mayberry Village. 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. To the north is Burnside Avenue. To the south is Chester Street. To the west are other residential neighborhoods. To the east is Manchester, Connecticut.
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. 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.
In the earlier days, Mayberry Village was a cohesive community, managed by the Housing Authority out of the Community Building. On the first of the month, children would be carrying envelopes to the rental office to pay the families’ monthly rent payment. The Village was a safe place and there was no fear of robbery. In most families, the father was a defense worker, often a veteran of WWII, and the mother stayed home during the day.
Kids went to school at the Little Red School House, which eventually burned down and was replaced by St. Isaac Jogues Church. There were three rooms in the school; one large one for kindergarten, and two rooms for first grade. The Community Building had two classrooms off the auditorium which housed the second grade classes, and then children walked to Woodland School, until Mayberry School was built.
Mayberry Village is an isolated, dense neighborhood of 860 properties.[1]. The neighborhood has seen police brutality, robberies, drug busts, and several murders in the past several years.[2]. Mayberry Village‘s school is the lowest performing school in the district.[3]