More than five years since it stopped churning out ice cream, the former Connecticut manufacturing plant is being eyed for a major overhaul as expansion space for a popular theater.
The old AC Petersen factory currently sits empty above the last remaining AC Petersen Farms restaurant, the iconic Park Road location in West Hartford that’s been a local favorite for more than a century.
The nonprofit Playhouse Theatre Group is hoping to change that with a roughly $8.2 million makeover that would vastly expand the Playhouse on Park facilities and potentially draw after-show crowds to the restaurant, according to organizers.
“We could have a small black box theater for our Playhouse Theatre Academy, office space, room for storage,” said Executive Director Tracy Flater.
Playhouse on Park in West Hartford. (Don Stacom/The Hartford Courant)
The 163-seat theater is wrapping up its 16th season with the final productions of Singin’ In The Rain, and has grown over those years to host an ambitious mainstage schedule, cabaret nights, comedy shows, youth productions and more.
The Playhouse Theatre Group is preparing a large-scale fundraising campaign for the multi-year expansion project, and this week celebrated a $200,000 state grant for brownfields cleanup. That money will pay for an environmental evaluation to determine what chemicals are in the walls and floor and how to do remediation.
The plan is for the nonprofit to buy the theater itself and the expansion space, replace the building mechanical systems and put on a new roof.
The theater is part of a business condominium complex led by the art deco AC Petersen restaurant, the original flagship of what became a statewide chain in the ’70s and ’80s.
Founded by Andrew Petersen in 1914 when West Hartford was largely farmland, the business at one time maintained a fleet of more than 40 milk delivery trucks and manufactured its own ice cream on the second floor of the restaurant building. The fleet was parked in an industrial garage that’s alongside the restaurant.
Plahouse on Park in West Hartford. (Don Stacom/The Hartford Courant)
After milk deliveries ended, the old garage space was empty until two civic organizations helped open a small theater there. The Playhouse Theater Group took it over in 2009.
The second-floor factory produced ice cream for the flagship restaurant and a fleet of others that included outlets in Bloomfield, Simsbury, Windsor, Newington and as far as Old Lyme. The business ran into trouble in the 1990s and most of the operation was sold to the Newport Creamery chain, which itself filed Chapter 11 in 2000.
Catherine Denton at AC Petersen Farms in West Hartford. (Don Stacom/The Hartford Courant)
Catherine Denton, chief financial officer for the original AC Petersen, bought the West Hartford restaurant 25 years ago and still operates it today.
The restaurant built its reputation on ice cream and milkshakes, and still sells packaged containers from a freezer in its lobby.
“Our vanilla is extremely popular, our grape nut has a following. Chocolate chip is popular, so is coffee … I could go on all day,” Denton said Wednesday.
When she bought the restaurant, Kenwood Farms was manufacturing ice cream on the second-floor factory but stopped around 2010. Denton then signed up with suppliers in Cheshire and in Massachusetts, and still gets ice cream from there today.
Catherine Denton at AC Petersen Farms in West Hartford. (Don Stacom/The Hartford Courant)
A couple of tenants leased the West Hartford plant for ice cream brands under other names, but the operation was shut down completely around 2020.
“With the product line we have, it was impossible to make it all at that plant and store it. It made more sense to outsource it,” Denton said. “It was an old factory that needed a lot of refurbishment to keep going.”
Denton said she hears regularly from customers who either worked at AC Petersen in their youth or dined there. She is planning to bring her son, Brian, on board this fall to begin learning the business so he can eventually take it over.
“We’ve had generations of people with memories of here. A lot of people came here on dates and are married now, a lot of people have relatives who remember being here,” she said. “Now we’re looking to bring the next generation to make new memories.”
Originally Published: August 14, 2025 at 5:15 AM EDT
Dining and Cooking