Sage-Allen Building (1898)

Like the Shoor Building, which I featured yesterday, the Sage-Allen building on Main Street in Hartford was designed by Isaac A. Allen, Jr. The yellow brick Renaissance Revival department store building was built in 1898 and originally housed both Sage-Allen & Co. and the Chas R. Hart Co., a carpet, drapery and wall paper retailer. The two companies each had display windows, on the first and second floors respectively. Sage-Allen soon grew and came to occupy the adjacent buildings on Main Street to the south. The company went bankrupt in the 1990s and the building was in danger of demolition. New apartment and retail space was to be constructed on the site and a design solution was found that incorporated the old facade with new additions on either side. The resulting new structure, called the Lofts at Main and Temple, has allowed the Sage-Allen facade to still dominate the view east up Pratt Street, as it has for over a century.

Also, check out the latest posts on my Historic Places blog about sites I recently visited in Pennsylvania and New York: Washington’s Headquarters in Newburgh NY and Knox’s Headquarters in New Windsor NY; the Eastern Orthodox and Greek Catholic Churches and Cemeteries of St Clair, PA; Trout Hall in Allentown PA and the Troxell-Steckel House in Egypt PA; and historic buildings of Jim Thorp and Bethlehem PA, including Bethlehem’s Colonial Industrial Quarter.

Shoor Building (1909)

The Federal-style Corning House once stood at 150 Trumbull Street in Hartford, just north of the old Hall of Records building. In 1909, it was replaced with what later became known as the Shoor Brothers Furniture Company building. Shoor Brothers did not move in until 1955. The original stores to occupy the building in 1909 were the Flint-Bruce Company furniture store and the Luke Horsfall Company clothing store. The building was designed by Isaac A. Allen, Jr, who also designed the similar Dillon and Sage-Allen buildings in Hartford. Among the businesses now occupying the Shoor Building today is Trumbull Kitchen. A modern addition now adjoins the building where the Hall of Records once stood.

Heublein Building, Hartford (1896)

Adjacent on the north of the old Charter Oak Bank Building, on Trumbull Street in Hartford, is the Heublein Building, built in 1896. It was originally the home of G.F. Heublein and Brothers, a liquor and wine company which created the world’s first bottled cocktails in 1892 and began making A1 Steak Sauce in 1895. G.F. Heublein later built the Heublein Tower. The building in Hartford was constructed on the site of the eighteenth-century house of Dr. Norman Morrison, which was demolished to make way for the new building. Dr. Morrison (1690-1761), who was born in Scotland, settled in Hartford around 1740. He is credited with being the first man to separate the practice of medicine from pharmacy.

30 Lewis Street, Hartford (1840)

The former house at 30 Lewis Street in Hartford, like the nearby houses at nos. 24 and 36, was probably constructed by the designer and builder Austin Daniels around 1840. Like the building at 36 Lewis Street, no. 30 was altered to conform to the Italianate style, around 1860. The building became the home of the University Club in 1906 and the front door was then moved to the side of the structure. In 1928, a five-story rear addition was constructed. In more recent years, the building has been converted into office space.

The Terence McGovern House (1875)

At the corner of Albany Avenue and Center Street in Hartford is a Second Empire-style house, built around 1875. The earliest documented owner was Terence McGovern. At the time of the First World War, he both lived and operated a saloon in the building, at a time when the surrounding Clay Hill neighborhood was heavily Irish. The house’s upper floors retain original decorative features, while the ground floor has been converted to commercial use. (more…)

St. Patrick’s and St. Anthony’s Church (1876)

The first St. Patrick’s Church, serving the Irish-Catholic population of Hartford, was dedicated on Church Street in 1851, but was destroyed by fire in 1874. It was replaced by the current quarry-faced brownstone church, completed in 1876. A fire in 1956 gutted the interior of the church, which was restored, but the steeple was removed during the reconstruction. In 1958, St. Anthony’s Parish, dedicated in 1898, merged with St. Patrick’s Parish. St. Anthony’s had served the Italian community of Front Street, a neighborhood that had been demolished for the construction of Constitution Plaza. In 1990, the Franciscan Friars took over the leadership for the ministries of St. Patrick-St. Anthony Church and established the Franciscan Center for Urban Ministry. In 2000, new facilities for the Center were constructed on the grounds of the church.