1144 Prospect Street, Hartford (1912)

This Sunday is the Annual Holiday ouse Tour, held by the Friends of the Mark Twain House & Museum. One of the houses to be featured on the tour is the impressive mansion at 1144 Prospect Avenue. Located near the highest point in the City of Hartford and with views of the Hartford skyline, the house was built in 1912 and designed by Smith and Bassette. Earlier this year, the house’s owners won an award from the Hartford Preservation Alliance for their extensive restoration of the home’s historic facade and entry bridge.

Hotel Capitol (1875)

A block south on Main Street in Hartford from the Linden, on the corner of Capitol Avenue across from the Butler-McCook House, is another building, which like the Linden has a distinctive tower. The Hotel Capitol was built in 1875 by John W. Gilbert The building combines elements of the High Victorian Gothic and Second Empire styles. Isidore Wise operated it as residential hotel after he acquired it in 1905.

The Linden (1891)

The Linden is an apartment building, built in 1891 on Main Street in South Downtown in Hartford by Frank Brown and James Thomson, owners of Brown, Thompson & Company department store. Designed by Frederick Savage Newman, the Linden was designed to echo Richardson’s Cheney block, where Brown & Thompson was then located. An addition on the south, designed by John J. Dwyer, was constructed in 1895. Having fallen into disrepair, the building was rehabilitated in the 1980s, with the storefronts and interior being significantly remodeled.

Hartford Seminary (1981)

The origins of the Hartford Seminary go back to the opening of the Theological Institute of Connecticut in 1834 in East Windsor Hill. Some houses in that neighborhood, where professors at the institute once lived, have survived, but the original seminary buildings have not. In 1865, the Institute moved to Hartford and in 1885 changed its name to the Hartford Theological Seminary. After occupying several old houses on Prospect Street, in the 1880s the Sminary moved to a campus on Broad Street, across from Hartford High School. In the 1920s, the Seminary moved to a new Gothic campus (now the UCONN Law School). In 1972, the Seminary changed from being a traditional residential divinity school and became an interdenominational theological center. It was decided to sell the old campus and construct a single building, designed by Richard Meier, a post-modern architect known for his use of the color white. The new structure was built between 1978 and 1981 and in the latter year the institution’s name was changed to Hartford Seminary. (more…)