My latest Substack post is about a lost mid-1800s Hartford mansion (shown above in a detail from a 1967 advert when it was the Casa Bianca Restaurant) that had an amazingly varied history. In 1917, it was the home of a woman who, just days after her husband died, was threatened with death by a gang of blackmailers. Later serving as a private hospital and a clubhouse, it was then home to a series of restaurants from 1941 into the 1970s.
In this section of the 1877 Birds Eye View of Hartford, I’ve circled the now lost house that then had the address of 10 Allen Place, near Trinity College. My latest Substack post is about a shootout that took place in this house on January 10, 1880, between an insurance agent and a medical doctor and left both men wounded. https://oldhartford.substack.com/p/a-shootout-near-trinity-college-in?r=4j8x6h
The Hartford County Courthouse building, a three-story French Renaissance-style building (shown in an old postcard above), was designed by architect John C. Mead and stood at the corner of Trumbull and Allyn Streets in Hartford from 1885 until 1930. This is where the Peoples Bank Arena is located today. My latest Substack post contains anecdotes from 1912 about the lawyers hanging out in a dark room of the courthouse where they traded stories and lost track of their cigar butts.
My latest FREE in-person presentation is about Colonial and Revolutionary era Hartford. It’s at the Elmwood Senior Center in West Hartford on Thursday, July 9 at 10:30 AM. Call 860-561-8180 to register!
My latest FREE in-person presentation is at the Elmwood Senior Center in West Hartford, July 9 at 10:30 AM. Come learn about the buildings (surviving and lost) and notable personalities of Colonial and Revolutionary era Hartford! Call 860-561-8180 to register!
The modern apartment building on Arch Street in Hartford stands on the site of a once-famous Hartford tree: the Ledyard Elm. My latest video is about John Ledyard, the famous traveler, and the fate of the tree he planted back in 1773.
The image above (taken near the start of the twentieth century) shows the three-story Italianate-style office building erected in 1853 by the Hartford Life and Health Insurance Company at 39 Pearl Street in Hartford. In the 1860s, the building was taken over by the State Savings Bank. Right behind the building was a fire house at 43 Pearl Street, which by the time of this photo was used by the department’s Squad A. The fire house was built in the early 1860s and behind it was the tower that housed the city’s fire alarm bell. Installed in 1867, the nearly-9,000-pound bell was linked to a telegraphic alarm system that involved alarm boxes throughout the city. After the bell cracked in 1881, it was recast and reinstalled. The new bell continued in service until 1921. At that point, the State Savings Bank acquired the fire department property and replaced all of these structures with a new bank building that lasted until 1972. The large bell was taken out of service and was eventually donated to the Connecticut Historical Society (now the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History). You can learn more about Hartford’s Fire Alarm Bell in my latest Substack post: https://open.substack.com/pub/oldhartford/p/the-old-pearl-street-fire-alarm-bell?r=4j8x6h&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
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