Haley Manors (1898)

In 1981-1982, three nineteenth-century buildings on Capen Street in Hartford, each with 6-units, were converted into cooperatively-owned housing and named “Haley Manors” after Alex Haley, the author of Roots. The property for the project was donated by Rev. Dr. Lincoln J. Davis Sr., founder and President of Lincoln Enterprises, one of the first minority-owned business development corporations in Hartford. Two of the buildings, at 42-44 Capen Street (see image above) and 46-48 Capen Street (see image below), are wood-frame structures that follow the same basic plan with different decorative details on each building. They were built in 1898 by Henry D. Ely. The third building, located at 36-38 Capen Street (see image below), is a brick Italianate, built around 1875. These buildings are mentioned in Tour 8 in my new book, A Guide to Historic Hartford, Connecticut. (more…)

995 Prospect Avenue, West Hartford (1916)

The house at 995 Prospect Avenue in West Hartford, across from the Governor’s Residence, was built in 1916 for Lewis E. Gordon, resident manager of the American Mutual Liability Insurance Company. From 1926 to 1989, the house was owned by Miss Ethel Frances Donaghue (pdf) (1896-1989). Her father, Patrick Donaghue, an Irish immigrant, became wealthy running a wholesale and retail liquor business and purchasing commercial real estate in downtown Hartford. A wealthy heiress, Ethel Donaghue earned a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania and an SJD from New York University School of Law. Specializing in real estate and trust law in Hartford, she practiced until 1933, when her mother was ill with cancer. Her father had passed away when she was in High School from heart disease.

Experiencing health problems of her own in her later years, Ethel Donaghue left the bulk of her wealth ($53 million) to the Patrick and Catherine Weldon Donaghue Medical Research Foundation to “promote medical knowledge which will be of practical benefit to the preservation, maintenance and improvement of human life.” After Donaghue was incapacitated by a series of strokes in 1980, there was a legal battle over control of her financial affairs between the two conservators of her estate, who were both later removed (pdf). The resulting scandal led to the resignation, in 1984, of Probate Judge James H. Kinsella, to avoid an impending impeachment vote in the Connecticut House of Representatives. The house on Prospect Avenue, vacant for a number of years after her death, passed through other owners. In 2011, the house was sold to George Jepsen, who is currently serving as the state’s Attorney General.

Ephraim Kirby House (1773)

The house at 113 South Street in Litchfield was completed around 1773 for Ephraim Kirby (it is also known as the Reynolds Marvin-Ephraim Kirby House). A veteran of the Revolutionary War, Ephraim Kirby became an attorney and in 1789 compiled the first volume of state law reports in the country. In 1804, President Thomas Jefferson appointed Kirby as the first Superior Court Judge of the Mississippi Territory. Kirby traveled to Fort Stoddert, in what is now Alabama, and died a few months later. His grandson was Edmund Kirby Smith, the Confederate general. The Kirby House was completely transformed in the early twentieth century with numerous Colonial Revival alterations.