Steinmanns developed Westview Heights subdivision

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This 1916 map in the town land map records shows streets in Bissell Heights, which became the northern section of the Westview Heights subdivision developed by the Steinmann family in the 1930s. (Robert Rafford photo)

By DR. ROBERT L. RAFFORD

Between 1900 and 1950, the population of Middlebury expanded from 736 residents in 1900 to 3,318 in 1950, a population increase of more than 350 percent. There were a great many factors for this increase, but one was the availability of homes. Many were built by one family – the Steinmanns.

The Steinmann family, enterprising immigrants who came here from Niederurnen, Canton of Glarus, Switzerland in 1895, seemed to have intuited this population growth, for they settled in Middlebury just before the turn of the last century and bought many parcels of land over the next half-century.

The progenitors of this family were Fridolin (Fred) (1838-1911) and Maggi (Blumer) Steinmann. They had three sons, Fred, Paul and Leonard. Paul (1875-1942) was married to Olga Olson (1884-1955) from New York in 1902, and he was largely responsible for developing housing in Middlebury known as Westview Heights. This may have been the first large subdivision of multiple housing units in the town, and it was laid out as early as 1911.

Westview Heights was nestled on the east side of Middlebury between Whittemore Road (Route 188 – formerly Hop Swamp Road) and Foster Street; some land was on Middlebury Road (Route 64), and the entire parcel incorporated White, Yale, Steinmann and Porter (formerly Atwood) Avenues. Older residents may remember the northern section of this property by the name “Bissell Heights.”

Paul Steinmann’s first purchase, along with his father, Fridolin, was made Nov. 9, 1897, when they acquired 105 acres of farm land in this area from Samuel H. Coe. On a 1932 (revised 1938) map of Westview Heights by Robert D. Beardsley, there were more than 350 double lots numbered 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, etc., comprising over 700 individual lots carved from the property between Hop Swamp Road and Foster Street.

Bob Rafford is the Middlebury Historical Society president and Middlebury’s municipal historian. To join or contact the society, visit MiddleburyHistoricalSociety.org or call Bob at 203-206-4717.