The Last Undiscovered Place

by David K. Leff

With warmth and a keen eye for the nuances of history and place, David K. Leff offers this affectionate, insightful portrait of his adopted home of Collinsville, Connecticut, a village that looked perfectly ordinary until he fell prey to its rhythms and charm. The town taught him a new way of seeing his environment, and through this process he discovered what many Americans long for amid the suburban sprawl decried in James H. Kunstler’s The Geography of Nowhere and many other recent a sense of community. When Leff began to look for a suitable place to raise a family, his criteria were an affordable fixer-upper with some historical character, pleasant neighbors, good schools, walkable streets, and attractive natural surroundings. The suburbs around Hartford were uninviting, so he settled sixteen miles away in Collinsville, a small village that grew up around—indeed was largely built by—The Collins Company, once the world’s leading maker of edge tools. Collins, which supplied the pikes for John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry, went out of business in 1966, and Collinsville settled into the familiar decrepitude of many New England mill towns. In spite of its half-alive state, Leff found in its battered factory buildings and struggling main street an extraordinary place. Built before the restrictive zoning codes that today keep most Americans in their cars for hours on end, Collinsville’s mixed-use center has been preserved by industrious residents and a hilly topography marked by the presence of the Farmington River, which once drove the mill. The landscape designer Frederick Law Olmsted Sr. lived here at a time when Samuel Collins, the socially minded founder of the company, was laying out his ideal village for workers and managers. Leff feels Olmsted’s presence as he walks the village’s uneven streets, often in the company of his children, musing on its history, politics, and architecture. Living at the center of Collins’s creation years later, Leff has come to believe, like Olmsted, that human beings are deeply affected by their experience of landscape, and that local interaction—between parents and teachers, store owners and customers, bar regulars and volunteer firefighters—matters. The Last Undiscovered Place argues quietly but forcefully for looking at our landscapes more carefully, as Leff strives for a metaphorical Collinsville that can serve as a way to rediscover other places, those that already exist and those that are still on the drawing boards of developers and planners.

240 pages, Hardcover

First published April 2, 2004

Reviews

[Bill S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The central wisdom of the book is the author asking that we have the same attitude about the place we live as we do about the the places we vacation. When we are away from home we approach everything with a sense of wonder and adventure. We seek excitement; flowers, trees and architecture spark our curiosity; and people seem more interesting. Why not apply the same to the town we live in? "Why not cultivate the traveler's way of taking in the world in the forty-nine weeks we remain home?"

Geology/Geography - Sam Collins selected location because the Sweetheart mountain to west and Huckleberry Hill to East force farmington into a narrow channel. There is hard bedrock here so the river has not been able to spread out by wearing away soil or soft rock. This made perfect spot for water power. Indians had once fished this spot because the rapids slowed migrating fish and made easy to catch. In 1955 it also made the flood particularly damaging here. A metal bridge was taken out and replaced by the concrete one we have today. Also, Route 179 was constructed to replace the road which used to go to UnionVille, a portion of which remains by the river. This prompted the blasting out of the rocks right before St Patrick’s as you drive to Collinsville.

An “Outlaw Village” - Could never be done today. Commercial and residential properties/ one family and multi-dwelling homes / businesses without parking lots / houses close to street and close to one another - ZONING WOULD NEVER ALLOW IT. Collins company built 200 houses here and also birthed the public buildings. It was their plan. Sam got the stagecoach to come and then post office and then the Railroad.

Axe Company -
Innovative. They made many different edged tools and advertised that if you wanted something different then contact us and we will make it.
Elisha K. Root - a mechanical genius hired in 1832 is largely responsible for success. Labor saving devices were his inventions. Hired away by Sam Colt in 1862. Root was the inspiration for Twain’s CT Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.

JOHN BROWN - Came to Collinsville and gave a speech about defending people in Kansas. He produced an 8 inch double edged blade and claimed that if attached to a 6 foot pole the people of Kansas could defend themselves and asked Charles Blair the superintendent of Collins Axe Company how much it would 500 or 1,000 cost. Blair said he would do 500 for 1.25; 1000 for 1 dollar. Once Brown sent money work began, but then the money ceased so the work ceased. Blair was suspicious. Why not have work done closer to action? Why a blade when a rifle would be much more effective. When Brown suddenly appeared again with money to complete the job he further wondered why the need when Kansas had calmed down. But, he paid the money and Blair had the goods delivered to Pennsylvania. He would regret this. He had been misled and worried about what this would do with southern business. But, they ended up making a fortune in Civil War making bayonets.

There were two electric power plants. The lower dam has a gatehouse on it whose gears controlled how much water was sent into a 650 foot canal that is 50 feet wide. At the end of the canal was the powerhouse which had two turbines. The powerhouse is now in ruins.

Steam power is what really did them in. No need for this location anymore. You can build a factory anywhere and give workers parking and let them commute. They lasted about a decade after the flood damages. Company dissolved in 1966 had sold patents and sold off residences they still owned at the time.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the sort of book that one has to love if one comes from Collinsville, Connecticut. Because it takes place right here. In absolute lyrical fashion David Leff captures what it is like to live in a small town. Really, it makes me want to move down to the village. (Actually I always wanted to live there but we went up the hill for a variety of valid reasons so I have no regrets.) The title gets a wonderful discussion at the beginning that must be read if, say, you grew up and loved small town living somewhere in America. For the record, I grew up in Sandwich, Massachusetts. There are so many echoes of that life in The Last Undiscovered Place. It was a tad maudlin to enumerate and note the places that have changed even since Leff penned this excellent work 12 years ago, however there have also been many positive evolutions in my town. He's also a darned good writer, so on that basis alone this may be worth a read for some of you.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

How can you not love a beautifully written book about part of the small town where you grew up?!