Lost Hartford

This is the last video in my series on the stretch of Asylum Street between Main and Trumbull Streets in Hartford, Connecticut. This section of the parking lot on the north side of Asylum Street, just west of Main Street and the lost Hartford-Aetna Building, was once home to businesses such as the Freeman-Church clothing store, Greenspon’s Hardware store, Huntsinger’s Business College, and various business enterprises operated by Eli Pakulski, including the Wooster billiards, bowling and cafe and the Wooster lunchroom and Wooster Lunch Annex.

This video is about the Isle of Safety, which sheltered trolley (and later bus) passengers in Downtown Hartford, Connecticut from 1913 to 1976. It is now at the Connecticut Trolley Museum in East Windsor, Connecticut.

This video is about the lost buildings that once stood on the north side of Asylum Street in Hartford, just east of Trumbull Street and the Brownstone Building. Among the businesses that occupied these buildings over the years were Katten & Sons clothing store, Hollander’s clothing store, Bond clothes, Tracy & Robinson hardware store, Harris Parker Company toy store, Gemmill & Burnham Co. clothing store and Kennedy’s clothing store.

The Brownstone Building, erected for the Charter Oak Bank in 1861. Later home to the City Bank & Trust, the Capitol Grill and the Brownstone Restaurant. Before it was built, this was the site of the 1846 Unitarian Church of the Saviour and before that a log cabin erected for William Henry Harrison’s presidential campaign in 1840.

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!

Savitt Jewelers was a beloved Hartford institution, famous for the slogan P.O.M.G. (Peace of Mind Guaranteed). For half a century the store was located on the south side of Asylum Street. In this video, I talk about Savitt’s and some of the earlier businesses that existed in the same section of Asylum Street going back to the nineteenth century. These included a number of clothiers, one whose fame was compared to that of Lord Byron. Another clothing store was run by a former Hartford mayor and yet another was damaged during a major riot caused by the distribution of free suspenders.