The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company (1932)

The former headquarters building of the Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company, at 56 Prospect Street in Hartford, is currently vacant. An Art Deco structure built in 1932, it was designed by Carl J. Malmfeldt. This block of Prospect Street was once the site of two lost Hartford landmarks: the old headquarters of the Travelers Insurance Company and Parson’s Theatre. To learn about the founding of Hartford Steam Boiler and find out about other great sites in downtown Hartford, check out Tour 1 in my new book, A Guide to Historic Hartford, Connecticut.

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…)

Henry C. Dwight School (1885)

To celebrate the release of my new book this week, A Guide to Historic Hartford, Connecticut, I’ll be featuring Hartford buildings. The Henry C. Dwight School, at 585 Wethersfield Avenue, consists of two attached structures. The earlier one (image above) was built in about 1885 and is a polychromatic High Victorian Gothic building designed by Jacob Bachmeyer. In 1901, a larger addition (see below) in the Renaissance Revival style was constructed, which more than doubled the size of the school. Known as the Wethersfield Avenue School, it was later renamed for Henry C. Dwight, wool merchant, president of Mechanics Savings Bank, mayor of Hartford in 1890–92 and chairman of Hartford’s South School District. (more…)

Flatiron Building, Hartford (1896)

This is my 200th Hartford Post! To celebrate this milestone, I’m announcing that I have a book coming out later this summer called A Guide to Historic Hartford, Connecticut, published by The History Press.

Please watch this site for more announcements soon and “like” the Facebook page for the book:
http://www.facebook.com/AGuideToHistoricHartfordConnecticut

Also visit the site I’ve created for the book at
http://guidetohistorichartford.historicbuildingsct.com/.

The Flatiron Building in the above picture (called flatiron for its distinctive shape, resembling the famous Flatiron Building in New York City) is at 529-543 Ann Uccello Street in Hartford, between Ann and High Streets. The Neoclassical Revival commercial structure was designed by Frederick R. Comstock and was built in 1896. It has been vacant since a fire in 2004.

Widows’ Homes (1865)

Across from Old North Cemetery, on Main Street (formerly Windsor Avenue) in Hartford, are a pair of three-story brick buildings constructed in 1864-1865. Known as the Widows’ Homes, they were built for charitable purposes (housing Civil War widows) through a bequest by Lawson Ives, a manufacturer and member of the Pearl Street Congregational Church (since demolished). Plaques on the exterior of each of the two buildings memorialize Ives’ gift. According to the Annual Reports of the Board of Charities to the Governor for the Years Ending September 30, 1905 and 1906 (1907):

The Widows’ Homes at Nos. 210 and 216 Windsor avenue were established in 1867 by the will of Mr. Lawson C. Ives, an honored citizen of Hartford. The two Homes are under the management, respectively, of the pastors and prudential committees of the Farmington Avenue Congregational Church and of the Park Congregational Church, who were incorporated for that purpose by the General Assembly of 1867. Each Home contains twelve apartments of three rooms each, and all occupants who are able to do so, pay a monthly rental of $2 for front and $1.50 for back rooms. The inmates do their own work and enjoy a degree of homelike privacy not found in a large institution.