By Michael P. Walsh
Special to the Voice
Mayor Nancy R. Rossi on Dec. 3 revealed the logo for West Haven’s 100th anniversary next year.
In a video message posted on the city’s Facebook and YouTube pages, Rossi, speaking from her office, unveiled the new logo, which features a blue-and-gold “100” that is overlapped with a gold banner with “Centennial” in white lettering and “1921-2021” in blue numbering below it.
The round logo is bordered by “City of West Haven” in blue lettering and “Celebrating Our Past” and “Inspire Our Future” in gold lettering.
Watch the video message on West Haven’s YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5cM1trmHe999FXNJ56X_Jg.
“The West Haven Centennial Committee is excited to announce this image as the formal West Haven centennial logo,” Rossi said in the message. “This will also be accompanied by a newly colorized city seal, which will be used throughout 2021.”
Rossi said the committee, composed of city officials and community members, will use the logo for promoting and celebrating the 1921 birth of Connecticut’s youngest town.
The centennial logo was commissioned by Rossi, the committee’s honorary chair. The design was supervised by committee member Beth A. Sabo, the city’s commissioner of human resources.
Rossi said the committee is organizing a series of commemorative events for three straight weekends, starting June 24, 2021. Plans include a kickoff ceremony and other festivities that observe West Haven’s rich and diverse heritage, she said.
“The West Haven Centennial Committee continues to actively plan city-sponsored events that can allow everyone to safely celebrate the past 100 years of West Haven history,” Rossi said. “Future official centennial announcements will continue to be posted on the city website.”
West Haven, now a city, incorporated as Connecticut’s youngest in 1961, is also one of the state’s oldest communities.
In 1648, West Haven, then known as West Farms, was settled by farmers from the New Haven Colony. West Farms became the separate parish of West Haven in 1719 through a petition granted by the state General Assembly. In 1822, the parish united with North Milford to form the town of Orange before separating from Orange in 1921 to become the town of West Haven.
According to the Historical Society, West Haven was founded by several New Haven Colony leaders who recognized the value of the extended shoreline, unadulterated forests and potential farmland. The historic crossing into West Farms was by horse bridge over the West River near New Haven Harbor. The West River Crossing is an event commemorated to this day, both in ceremony and in a master mural in the post office on Campbell Avenue.
Soon after, according to information on the society’s website, guilds built six large post-medieval houses within a short distance of the community’s central Green, a common grazing and meeting site. The earliest settlers shared the lands with three major Native American tribes that historically summered in West Farms, using the resources of forests, three tributaries and a shoreline abundant with freshwater and saltwater life.