WEST DISTRICT PRESERVE. 23.6 acres, donated by Mary E. Bushley
and Ruth B. Childs in 1995.
This large parcel includes mowings and cropland of the old
Wilcox/Bushley Farm on Coppermine Road. Stone walls border the
fields. There are also hardwoods, a swamp and a small pond that is
home to a wealth of fish and animal life. Some of the fields show
advanced “old field progression” with ingrowth of cedars, shrubs, and
invasives. This big open parcel recalls the time when the original “West
Woods” section of Farmington had been cleared and was home to
family farms. Census records indicate that the land was owned by the
Wilcox/Bushley family beginning in the mid-19th century. A part of the
farmhouse is more than 200 years old, long antedating their ownership.
Mary Bushley, who now occupies the old farmhouse at 119
Coppermine Rd., relates that her father kept chickens and cows and
that before that there were orchards. The family farm originally
comprised 106 acres, including the land now occupied by West District
School. Sometimes the Bushley children would boldly venture all the
way down through the wooded “hollow” to New Britain Avenue. The
children attended the West District School, near the Historical Society’s
1799 “Stone Schoolhouse”. Before that, neighborhood children shared
the older building with blacks, Irish and Tunxis Indian descendents
who had lived in the West District on and off Reservation land for many
years. When the Stone Schoolhouse became a neighborhood chapel,
the family attended services and church suppers in the building.
Some of the Bushley land will be allowed to continue in the “old field
progression” and revert to forest, while other portions will be mowed
twice a year to retain them as historic farm fields. The pond will be
protected from eutrophication, as the fields will no longer be treated with
chemical fertilizers.
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WEST DISTRICT PRESERVE CLEANUP, OCTOBER 2, 2005
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On Sunday, October 2, seven volunteers made up the "FLT working
crew" removing invasive non-native plants on our West District Preserve.
We appreciate all the efforts of the volunteers to help manage these
invasives, which, if left untreated, would overtake the native plants and
trees at this parcel and ruin its habitat value. This group contributed 14
hours to this effort and made a huge impact.
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