G. Burgess Fisher House (1930)

Built in 1930 for G. Burgess Fisher and his wife, the house at 105 Scarborough Street in Hartford is one of the homes that will be open as part of the Mark Twain House & Museum‘s 31st Annual Holiday House Tour on Sunday, December 4, 2011. Described as “semi-Tudor” and French-Norman Chateau in style, the house was designed by Milton E. Hayman. It features Tudor elements (presented in a more ordered fashion than is typical of the style) and also has examples of classical detailing. The house was featured in an advertisement, headed “Modern De Lux Living” in the Hartford Courant of April 26, 1932. The ad, placed by the Hartford Gas Company, extolled the house’s modern amenities, including the “All-Gas Kitchen.” The original gas stove was later bought by Martha Stewart for one of her own houses.

45-51 Pratt Street, Hartford (1919)

The commercial building at 45-51 Pratt Street in Hartford was designed by Isaac A. Allen, Jr. Built in 1919, it is notable for its fanciful Gothic detailing, rendered in white terra-cotta. The building also clearly displays its modern use of structural steel allowing large areas of glass. The first floor detailing was later obscured by alterations to the building, but was restored in more recent years.

Goodwin Building (1881)

Today, all that remains of the Goodwin Building, on Asylum Street in Hartford, are the outer walls, with their striking English Queen Anne facade utilizing ornamental terra cotta. Built in 1881 as an apartment building by the brothers, James J. Goodwin and Rev. Francis Goodwin, it was designed by Francis Kimball and was modeled on buildings Rev. Goodwin had seen being constructed at the time in England. Kimball, of the firm of Kimball & Wisedell, was the architect for the Day House in Hartford, which also has an English Queen Anne design. The Goodwin Building was expanded in 1891 to Ann Street and in 1900 to Pearl Street. It was a very prestigious address at the time, with even J.P. Morgan living there during his visits to the city of his birth. In 1985-1986, the building’s Arts and Crafts style interior was gutted to prepare for the structure’s incorporation into a new office tower, Goodwin Square, completed in 1989. That same year, the Goodwin Hotel opened in the former apartment building. The hotel closed in 2008 and last year Goodwin Square went into foreclosure.

The Hartford Club (1904)

The Hartford Club

The Hartford Club was founded in 1873 as a union of several local clubs and soon developed a reputation as a literary club: Samuel Clemens joined in 1881. By the turn-of-the-century, the Club was focused on serving the political and business community of the state. In its early decades, the Hartford Club rented a series of increasingly larger spaces on Prospect Street. After merging with the Colonial Club in 1901, the enlarged Club built a new clubhouse at 46 Prospect Street. Designed by Robert D. Andrews of the architectural firm of Andrews, Jacques and Rantoul, the Georgian Revival clubhouse was opened in 1904. (more…)

Society for Savings (1893)

The former Society for Savings building, at 31 Pratt Street in Hartford, was that bank’s third sucessive building on the same site. Organized in 1819, Society for Savings was the state’s first mutual savings bank. Its first building was constructed in 1834, the second in 1860, and the present structure in 1893. It has since been altered: the ground floor during an interior renovation in 1927 and the upper floors in 1957, when architect Sherwood F. Jeter departed drastically from the Renaissance Revival style of the first floor. Society for Savings merged with Bank of Boston Connecticut in 1993 and the old building remained closed for over a decade. More recently, it has become the Society Room of Hartford, which takes advantage of the grand 1926 interior, an ornate space designed by Denison & Hirons with ornamental plaster work by Anthony DiLorenzo and murals by H.T. Schladermundt.