Before the Stilts building was erected in Hartford in 1981 there were numerous historic structures that once stood on the block of Main Street, north of the intersection with Church Street, including the Strand Theater, the American Industrial Building, a well-remembered 19th-century hotel and the home of the beloved Peanut Store.
Lord & Taylor had its first department store outside the greater New York area at Bishops Corner in West Hartford Connecticut. In this video I describe the store, which opened with great fanfare in 1953 and moved out (to Westfarms Mall) in 1983. I also talk about the adjacent shopping center, the Dutchland Farms dairy restaurant and summer pony rides that had previously existed on the site in the 1930s and 40s, and the attempts by local residents to block the building of Lord & Taylor.
This video is about what once existed on a block of Asylum Street in Hartford, CT where the City Place office towers were built in the 1980s. This included the house where J. P. Morgan was born, the sites of many historic Hartford businesses (including music stores, Turkish baths, bakeries and clothing stores), and a controversial mural that sparked public debate in the 1970s.
In this video I talk about the growth and development of G. Fox & Company department store from its early days in 1847 as a small fancy goods store, to a large department store occupying several contiguous buildings. I focus on the various buildings the store occupied. I end by describing the fire that destroyed the store in 1917. In another video I will describe the rebirth of the store and its continued expansion into the 1960s.
A mansion erected by a member of the Vanderbilt family once stood along Farmington Avenue in West Hartford, Connecticut. In this video I explain how the mansion came to be built, mention a notable artistic couple that was married in it, and tell how the mansion was replaced by an exclusive housing development.
This video is about Brown, Thomson & Company, a department store that existed in Hartford Connecticut from 1866 to 1969. I talk about the store’s history with a focus on the buildings the business occupied. I also talk about another store, the Bee Hive, which existed from 1847 until 1894, when it was absorbed by Brown Thomson’s.
This video is about Wise, Smith & Company, a department store in Hartford, Connecticut that existed from 1897 to 1954. I talk about the buildings that came before Wise-Smith and the various structures the company erected over the years. I also talk about the Hartford branch of E. J. Korvette, which occupied the Wise-Smith building from 1957 to 1971.