Barbara Rohrbach (1908 - December 8, 1995) was the wife of Malcolm A. Goodwin and an employee at Pratt & Whitney in East Hartford during World War II. She was also instrumental in the development of Old Harbor Village in Clinton, Connecticut.
Life and Death[]
Barbara Rohrbach, Apr. 1940
Barbara Rohrbach was born in Jersey City Heights in New Jersey in 1908, the daughter of John Rohrbach and Annie Mary Meyer, who had immigrated to the United States in the decade after the American Civil War from Germany and Alsace, respectively. Her father owned and managed a German restaurant in the Yorkville neighborhood of Manhattan. In 1914, Barbara moved with her family to Darien, Connecticut, where she attended the public schools both there and in Stamford, Connecticut. In October 1928, while she was a sophomore at the University of Connecticut (then the Connecticut State Agricultural College), she became engaged to Malcolm A. Goodwin, the son of Lulu Cadwell and stepson of Wallace B. Goodwin, a major real estate agent and developer in the Hartford area. When she graduated from the University of Connecticut in the spring of 1931, she married Malcolm Goodwin on November 28, 1931 in Darien, Connecticut.
After marrying him and moving to West Hartford, she worked at Pratt & Whitney in East Hartford during World War II. Before and after the war, she assisted her father-in-law, Wallace B. Goodwin, with the development of residential property in West Hartford, including Wood Pond and Woodridge Lake on Ridgewood Road. These developments featured the well-regarded architecture of Norris Prentice, whom the Goodwin family helped to establish in the 1930's. Architectural Forum, the trade magazine for architects, featured the development in its Nov. 1941 issue.
Engagement photo, Jan. 1929
Prior to the war, Goodwin and her husband Malcolm bought a farm in Westbrook, Connecticut, which they named MalaBar Farm. Here, they raised prize-winning sheep for a number of years, which they showed at country fairs, including the Eastern States Exposition. Breeding stock from MalaBar Farm was known throughout New England. In May 1942, she and her husband bought a Cape Cod cottage at 47 Wood Pond Road in the Woodridge development in West Hartford. In the early 1950's, the Goodwins, particularly Barbara, began the development of Old Harbor Village, near the old bridge at the foot of Waterside Lane in Clinton, Connecticut. Norris Prentice was again its architect, but the concept belonged to Barbara. The village included eight summer "cottages," each different, but each faithful to the style of colonial New England. Barbara managed this small community designed for retired persons for over 30 years, until the property was sold into the early 1980's.
Her husband died in 1985. Barbara Rohrbach died on December 8, 1995 at the Watrous Nursing Center in Madison, Connecticut, after a brief illness. She was survived by two nephews, William Rohrbach, and John Rohrbach, and five nieces, Ann Avery, Barbara Bruno, Margaret Wipf, Margaret Hill, and Jean Olsen. She had no children.