Get ready to kick off the summer with an engaging walking tour around the historic State House Square in downtown Hartford! Featuring local historian, Dan Sterner. State House Square lies in the very heart of the city of Hartford. Bordered by Main Street, Central Row, Market Street, and the pedestrian walkway that used to be part of State Street, hundreds of people walk by this site every day. They might look up and see the high-rise buildings, marvel at the beautiful Old State House at the center, or hurry to work in one of the office complexes that line the blocks. But how many know the history of those streets they walk, and the buildings they frequent? How has the neighborhood changed in both appearance and purpose? What kinds of businesses and people used to occupy the lots that surround them? Local historian, Dan Sterner has done vast amounts of research on the history of Hartford. He will lead an hour-long walking tour around State House Square. The tour will include a look at Connecticut’s Old State House’s newest exhibit: State House Square 360°. The exhibit features a number of historical images of State House Square dating back to the 1800s. Dan will highlight some of the most interesting stories of the sites. Open to the public! Registration: https://bit.ly/OSH2023SHS360Tour
This video is about the section of Asylum Street in Hartford, CT where a retail/parking structure was built by the Hartford National Bank & Trust in the 1960s. This was once the home of clothing stores, like the now vanished Covey & Smith, and the legendary Huntington’s Book Store, which was in existence under various names between 1835 and 1993 and was known to Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain as Brown & Gross.
This video is about a section of Asylum Street (south side, east of Trumbull Street) and the buildings and businesses that were once there, including the Stackpole Moore Tryon Company, Flint-Bruce Company, Horsfalls, H. F. Corning & Co. leather goods, Cone’s Hardware, Leopold Morse and a careful dentist!
In 2013, Ralph Nader purchased the former Winsted Savings Bank building at 654 Main Street in Winsted to become the future home of the American Museum of Tort Law, which he first announced was in development in 1998. The museum, which opened in 2015, has a mission to inform and inspire Americans about trial by jury and the benefits of tort law (the law of wrongful injuries). The museum‘s building was erected in 1925 by the Winsted Savings Bank, which was incorporated in 1860. From 1867 until 1925 the bank had occupied the 1851 building at 690 Main Street that had originally been erected by the Winsted Bank.
Henry Gildersleeve, Sr. (1817-1894) was a member of the prominent Gildersleeve shipbuilding family of Portland. In 1853 he erected his house, which has an Italianate-style cupola, at 625 Main Street. In 1932 the house was sold to Harold Randall, who is most likely the one who laid out the adjoining small street called Randall Place. As related in the History of Middlesex County, Connecticut, with Biographical Sketches of its Prominent Men (1884):
The eldest son of Sylvester and Rebecca Gildersleeve inherits from his father those rare traits of character that have distinguished the Gildersleeves, not only as a family of successful shipbuilders and merchants, but as a family who are noted for their public spirit and large hearted benevolence.
Henry was born in Portland, in that part of the town now known as Gildersleeve, on the 7th of April 1817. He enjoyed the limited educational advantages afforded by the district school, but acquired sufficient knowledge of the rudimental branches to fit him for the occupation he had chosen. At the age of 17, he commenced in his father’s yard to learn the business of shipbuilding, and soon acquired a thorough knowledge of the details of the business. At the age of 25, he was taken into partnership with his father, under the firm name of S. Gildersleeve & Son. In December 1872, he associated himself with the house of Bentley, Gildersleeve & Co., shipping and commission merchants, on South Street, New York. He retained his connection with the Portland shipbuilding firm and at the end of ten years he retired from the New York firm, resigning in favor of his son, Sylvester, who still continues the business in connection with his brother, Oliver, under the firm name of S. Gildersleeve & Co. Henry Gildersleeve, since retiring from his New York business, has devoted his whole time and attention to the shipbuilding and other interests with which he is connected in his native town.
Mr. Gildersleeve has been identified with many public enterprises outside of his shipbuilding interests. He was for a number of years a director in the Hartford Steamboat Company, and is now president of the Portland and Middletown Ferry Company, and a director in the Middlesex Quarry Company, also the First National Bank of Portland; and trustee of the Freestone Savings Bank. He has been for many years an active member and a liberal supporter of the Trinity Episcopal Church at Portland, was a large contributor to the fund for the erection of the building, and a member of the building committee.
In 1860, he represented the democratic party in the State Legislature, and sustained every measure for the vigorous prosecution of the war.
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