The mystery of the plaque, solved

I arrived at the AWARE group's annual potluck last night and Jennifer Alexander made her way to me to tell me that she had solved the mystery of the Middlesex Mutual sidewalk plaque.

She called Tom Ford, who manages the insurance company's "skyscraper" in Middletown, and he told her that it had been a victim of frost heave through the New England winters, and that finally this year, it became so loose, he had it removed. Plans are in place to re-seat the plaque. We hope that it will be replaced in its original position, and not repositioned to be part of the sidewalk for the newer headquarters across the street.

AWARE, is a group of Wesleyan neighbors, some of whom are Wesleyan staff, who organized many years ago to address issues of noise, re-shaping of the neighborhood with university building, and other general neighbor issues. Last night's gathering saw a good turnout for Michael Roth's first appearance at a meeting as Wesleyan president.

Who took the Middlesex Mutual plaque?

For years, embedded in the sidewalk in front of the old Middlesex Mutual Building on Court Street was a beautiful metal (bronze?) plaque commemorating the founding of this Middletown insurance company.

Just in the past few weeks, I've noticed it's gone.

Anyone know what happened to it? Was it the victim of a metal thief? The result of an errant snowplow job? Did Middlesex Mutual grab it for their archives? Was it an antiques heist? (They steal the statuary from Cities of the Dead in New Orleans, the weathervanes from barns in Vermont, and the pages from ancient books in the Beinecke, so why not a handsome plaque?)

I called the Department of Public Works, and no one in the office was aware that it was missing, however, sidewalk inspector Rick Romano was out, and he is the authoritative voice.

The DPW did confirm that the sidewalks, and thereby the plaque, belong to the city of Middletown, and that it should not have been removed without permission.