John A. Hartford House

Introduction

Text-to-speech Audio

The John A. Hartford House was built in 1932 in the Tudor Revival Style on what is now the campus of Westchester Community College in Valhalla, New York. John A. Hartford, who built the home, was considered the merchandising genius of the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (A&P). A&P was the nation’s first national grocery chain.

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Backstory and Context

Text-to-speech Audio

The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (A&P) was founded circa1859. George Francis Gilman started the organization with his twenty six year old employee George Huntington Hartford, who later became his business partner. They were able to bypass wholesalers and middlemen from their tea sales and thereby decrease their prices by over fifty percent.

In 1860, Hartford and Gilman opened a tea store in Manhattan, New York. By 1864 they formed the Great American Tea Company. In addition to tea, the Great American Tea Company began selling coffee, spices, flavoring extracts, condensed milk, and baking powder. By 1865, they added five more stores in the New York area and changed their name to The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (A & P). In 1878, Gilman retired, which gave Hartford full responsibility for the management of the company.

George involved his two sons, John and George L. Hartford, in the company. George L. was the financial manager of the organization, and John was the merchandising genius. By 1930 A & P reached an all time high of 15,737 stores. In the 1930’s federal and state governments were passing fair trade laws limiting chain stores, due to fear that the size and manufacturing capabilities of large chains threatened the wholesaler-retailer system. In 1937 Congress passed the Miller-Tydings Act putting additional economic pressure on the company. A & P continued to encounter economic problems through the 1970’s and eventually closed by 2015.

John A. Hartford purchased 360 acres land in Valhalla in 1930 from Joseph Daly and named it Buena Vista Farms. By 1932 Hartford had constructed and moved into his Tudor Revival mansion designed by architects Mann and McNeille. The Hartford House is a 2 1/2 story fieldstone mansion that contains approximately thirty rooms. When John A. Hartford died in 1951 the estate was used by Yale University for forestry studies. Today the John Hartford Hall serves as the college administration building for Westchester Community College.

Sources

Adams, George R.. John A. Hartford House; Hartford Hall. National Register of Historic Places. Published March 1st 1977.
Hudson, Edward. "Hartford Mansion Becoming a Landmark." New York Times (New York) November 11th 1979. .
Keegan, Patricia. "Hartford House granted historic status." November 10th 1979. .