C
Chessplayer
Guest
Old State House, 1937. Main Street and Central Row:
1877 map of Hartford. Medieval street layout, European levels of density. The Park River flows right through downtown:
Vintage postcard, 1906 - 1916. Front Street neighborhood, Bulkeley Bridge:
Photographs from the Library of Congress.
State Capitol, 1909:
Downtown Hartford from the top of the Capitol Building, 1909. Density, space defined by buildings. A city:
Same view, 1913:
Bushnell Park, 1909. Park River before being buried:
Downtown Hartford, 1909. No parking lots:
Hartford, 1902. 360 degree aerial panorama:
Photographs by William G. Dudley; dates and some description taken from the CT Historical Society.
Front Street, 1920s. The entire neighborhood would be destroyed in the early 60s for the infamous Constitution Plaza, a development even worse than the new West End because it is 100% office and one floor above street level. Over forty years later, it's still a problem (though far from the biggest):
Asylum St., 1920s. The Bond Hotel in its heyday, streets still unpaved. Today it is a Homewood Suites (sigh):
Corner of Trumbull and Asylum, 1920s. This building still stands. The Trumbull streetwall is still relatively intact, making it one of Hartford's best streets (along with Pratt and parts of Main Street):
Construction of the G. Fox Department Store, 1917. Building is now reused as Capitol Community College:
Corner of Park Street and Bartholomew Ave., 1920. Hartford Rubber Works under construction:
The cafeteria of Hartford Rubber Works:
Zion St. construction, 1920. Draft horses still widely used:
Main Street, 1920. Interior of H.S. Weeks Cigar Store:
Main Street, 1920. Sale at Sage Allen's, at one time the largest independent store in CT:
Main Street. The Cheney Building when it was home to the Brown Thompson Department Store:
Busier than Brown Thompson's used to be a saying in Hartford. Here the store is advertising a Fire, Smoke, and Water sale:
Park Street and Greenwich, 1920s. A fleet of delivery trucks:
Mowing the lawn outside the Capitol Building, 1920s:
22 State Street, 1920s. Honiss's Oyster House:
The next bunch are from Emporis.
The original Aetna Life Insurance Building, built in 1870. The city is the birthplace (and still the home of) many insurance giants: Travelers, Aetna, Phoenix, The Hartford, CT Mutual. Insurance wealth built the city but the same companies would be responsible for much of the destruction wrought on the city from the 60s through the late 90s:
View from the Southwest, 1892-1896:
After the 1913 reconstruction. Three floors added, mansard roof gone:
Demolished for parking, then a useless plaza:
Viewing South along Main Street, 1913. The Hartford-Aetna National Bank building is the tallest in the photo; it is now Hartford's most embarrassing parking lot. The buildings in the immediate foreground (look at that mansard!) have been demolished for the Bank of America Tower, a mediocre piece of 60s architecture:
Another view from Main Street, this time to the Southeast, 1913. Here the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company Building is front and center. Nearly every building in this photo is now gone:
Main and Pearl, 1907. CT Mutual Life Insurance Company Building:
Built in 1872, the building underwent a renovation in 1899 which added a floor to the six story structure. Before its renovation the building was even more resplendent, a towered Second Empire palace:
Pearl Street, 1929. Another demolished Pearl Street building, the Judd Building on the far right:
Pearl Street, 1906. The original Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Building. 100 Pearl Street (it's shiny) now stands in its place:
Jewell Street, 1906. The Hartford Fire Insurance Company Building, built in 1870. Demolished in 1930 for 55 on the Park (probably a fair trade):
Another image of the Hartford Fire Insurance Building, early 1900s:
State Street, 1906. The 1899 building is the only surviving pre-war building along Central Row. Its architect Ernest Flagg would go on to design the tallest building in the world, the now demolished Beaux-Arts Singer Building in Downtown Manhattan:
Another view of Central Row. The Connecticut Courant Building, circa 1900. Demolished for office buildings in the eightees:
Main Street, 1970. One American Airlines Plaza, now being reused as apartments. The deco detailing has been restored as well:
High and Asylum looking West, 1900. The Garde Hotel, built in 1876 and now demolished:
From above Bushnell Park, 1909. The Garde Hotel and surrounding buildings:
Main and Asylum, 1906. The Catlin Building - built in 1897, it must have been considered throwaway architecture because it was demolished in 1912 for the The Hartford - Aetna National Bank Building. Look at that Asylum streetwall extending into the distance! All gone now - and for surface parking:
Main and Temple, 1906. The Ballerstein Building, directly abutting the Sage Allen Dept. Store. Buildings then had character; here a diminutive clocktower, bay windows, and arches grace the ornamented facade. What is so hard about creating decent architecture like this? Today's mutilation of the block is terrible to look at. Don't developers have the pride to not construct dreck?
From the Charles W. Cushman archives.
"Connecticut's State Capitol dome gets fresh coat of paint." Sept. 24, 1941:
"Travelers Insur. Bldg. tower." Sept. 24, 1941. The two men are standing on the Hoadley Memorial Bridge at the end of Mulberry Street, now completely erased by I.M. Pei's Bushnell Tower and Plaza. To the left is the cupola of the Heublein Hotel, now a surface parking lot:
Before the Bulkeley Bridge there was the old CT River Bridge, here shown in the late 1800s. This covered bridge burned down in 1895:
Another vintage postcard with speedboats on the CT (how about this as a recaptured riverfront). Hartford was once a very wealthy city:
Bushnell Park, late 1800s:
Trinity College, 1909. View of the "Long Walk." Iconic chapel would be added in the 30s:
Pope Manufacturing Company, 1909:
Ann and Asylum, 1907. Hartford Life Insurance Company Building, now a surface parking lot (of course):
Main Street, 1920. Two views. The Traveler's Building is my favorite New England skyscraper and one of the many architectural gems still standing in Hartford. Unfortunately, the sum of the parts is greater than the whole:
1877 map of Hartford. Medieval street layout, European levels of density. The Park River flows right through downtown:
Vintage postcard, 1906 - 1916. Front Street neighborhood, Bulkeley Bridge:
Photographs from the Library of Congress.
State Capitol, 1909:
Downtown Hartford from the top of the Capitol Building, 1909. Density, space defined by buildings. A city:
Same view, 1913:
Bushnell Park, 1909. Park River before being buried:
Downtown Hartford, 1909. No parking lots:
Hartford, 1902. 360 degree aerial panorama:
Photographs by William G. Dudley; dates and some description taken from the CT Historical Society.
Front Street, 1920s. The entire neighborhood would be destroyed in the early 60s for the infamous Constitution Plaza, a development even worse than the new West End because it is 100% office and one floor above street level. Over forty years later, it's still a problem (though far from the biggest):
Asylum St., 1920s. The Bond Hotel in its heyday, streets still unpaved. Today it is a Homewood Suites (sigh):
Corner of Trumbull and Asylum, 1920s. This building still stands. The Trumbull streetwall is still relatively intact, making it one of Hartford's best streets (along with Pratt and parts of Main Street):
Construction of the G. Fox Department Store, 1917. Building is now reused as Capitol Community College:
Corner of Park Street and Bartholomew Ave., 1920. Hartford Rubber Works under construction:
The cafeteria of Hartford Rubber Works:
Zion St. construction, 1920. Draft horses still widely used:
Main Street, 1920. Interior of H.S. Weeks Cigar Store:
Main Street, 1920. Sale at Sage Allen's, at one time the largest independent store in CT:
Main Street. The Cheney Building when it was home to the Brown Thompson Department Store:
Busier than Brown Thompson's used to be a saying in Hartford. Here the store is advertising a Fire, Smoke, and Water sale:
Park Street and Greenwich, 1920s. A fleet of delivery trucks:
Mowing the lawn outside the Capitol Building, 1920s:
22 State Street, 1920s. Honiss's Oyster House:
The next bunch are from Emporis.
The original Aetna Life Insurance Building, built in 1870. The city is the birthplace (and still the home of) many insurance giants: Travelers, Aetna, Phoenix, The Hartford, CT Mutual. Insurance wealth built the city but the same companies would be responsible for much of the destruction wrought on the city from the 60s through the late 90s:
View from the Southwest, 1892-1896:
After the 1913 reconstruction. Three floors added, mansard roof gone:
Demolished for parking, then a useless plaza:
Viewing South along Main Street, 1913. The Hartford-Aetna National Bank building is the tallest in the photo; it is now Hartford's most embarrassing parking lot. The buildings in the immediate foreground (look at that mansard!) have been demolished for the Bank of America Tower, a mediocre piece of 60s architecture:
Another view from Main Street, this time to the Southeast, 1913. Here the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company Building is front and center. Nearly every building in this photo is now gone:
Main and Pearl, 1907. CT Mutual Life Insurance Company Building:
Built in 1872, the building underwent a renovation in 1899 which added a floor to the six story structure. Before its renovation the building was even more resplendent, a towered Second Empire palace:
Pearl Street, 1929. Another demolished Pearl Street building, the Judd Building on the far right:
Pearl Street, 1906. The original Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Building. 100 Pearl Street (it's shiny) now stands in its place:
Jewell Street, 1906. The Hartford Fire Insurance Company Building, built in 1870. Demolished in 1930 for 55 on the Park (probably a fair trade):
Another image of the Hartford Fire Insurance Building, early 1900s:
State Street, 1906. The 1899 building is the only surviving pre-war building along Central Row. Its architect Ernest Flagg would go on to design the tallest building in the world, the now demolished Beaux-Arts Singer Building in Downtown Manhattan:
Another view of Central Row. The Connecticut Courant Building, circa 1900. Demolished for office buildings in the eightees:
Main Street, 1970. One American Airlines Plaza, now being reused as apartments. The deco detailing has been restored as well:
High and Asylum looking West, 1900. The Garde Hotel, built in 1876 and now demolished:
From above Bushnell Park, 1909. The Garde Hotel and surrounding buildings:
Main and Asylum, 1906. The Catlin Building - built in 1897, it must have been considered throwaway architecture because it was demolished in 1912 for the The Hartford - Aetna National Bank Building. Look at that Asylum streetwall extending into the distance! All gone now - and for surface parking:
Main and Temple, 1906. The Ballerstein Building, directly abutting the Sage Allen Dept. Store. Buildings then had character; here a diminutive clocktower, bay windows, and arches grace the ornamented facade. What is so hard about creating decent architecture like this? Today's mutilation of the block is terrible to look at. Don't developers have the pride to not construct dreck?
From the Charles W. Cushman archives.
"Connecticut's State Capitol dome gets fresh coat of paint." Sept. 24, 1941:
"Travelers Insur. Bldg. tower." Sept. 24, 1941. The two men are standing on the Hoadley Memorial Bridge at the end of Mulberry Street, now completely erased by I.M. Pei's Bushnell Tower and Plaza. To the left is the cupola of the Heublein Hotel, now a surface parking lot:
Before the Bulkeley Bridge there was the old CT River Bridge, here shown in the late 1800s. This covered bridge burned down in 1895:
Another vintage postcard with speedboats on the CT (how about this as a recaptured riverfront). Hartford was once a very wealthy city:
Bushnell Park, late 1800s:
Trinity College, 1909. View of the "Long Walk." Iconic chapel would be added in the 30s:
Pope Manufacturing Company, 1909:
Ann and Asylum, 1907. Hartford Life Insurance Company Building, now a surface parking lot (of course):
Main Street, 1920. Two views. The Traveler's Building is my favorite New England skyscraper and one of the many architectural gems still standing in Hartford. Unfortunately, the sum of the parts is greater than the whole:
Last edited by a moderator:
