Keney Memorial Clock Tower (1898)

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As we count down the the last hours and minutes of 2007, it seems appropriate to showcase a clock tower. The Keney Memorial Clock Tower, located at the intersection of Albany Avenue, Main and Ely Steets in Hartford, stands on the site of the wholesale grocery business run by the brothers, Henry and Walter Keney, who lived in a house nearby. Henry Keney’s will left funds for both the memorial, which was dedicated to his mother, Rebecca Turner Keney, and for the creation of Hartford’s Keney Park. The Clock Tower, constructed of brownstone in 1898, was designed by Charles C. Haight and was modeled on the Tour Saint-Jacques, a surviving Gothic tower in Paris. The Keney Clock Tower stands 130-feet high and is Hartford’s only free-standing tower.

Northam Memorial Chapel (1882)

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Col. Charles H. Northam, a Hartford businessman, was director of the Cedar Hill Cemetery Association and donated funds for the construction of the cemetery’s Northam Memorial Chapel, completed in 1882. It was designed by the important Hartford Architect, George Keller, in what he described as the “Modern Gothic” style, his simplified version of the Gothic Revival style. The chapel was restored in 1999, after being unused for nearly fifty years, and today houses the cemetery’s offices.

All Saints Orthodox Church (1964)

The congregation of All Saints Orthodox Church was founded in Hartford in 1914. The original church building was on Broad Street, near the State Capitol. In 1956, land was purchased on Scarborough Street for a new church, which was not constructed until 1963-1964. Each November, the church has a Russian Tea Room and Bazaar. Today is Christmas, but some Russian-American Orthodox Christians will celebrate Christmas on January 7, the date of Russian Christmas.

S Razhd?stvOm!

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Horace Bushnell Congregational Church (1914)

Hartford’s Fourth Congregational Church, modeled on New Haven’s Center Church on the Green, was built downtown on Main Street in 1850. This original building can be seen in a number of historic photographs. In 1913, the Main Street property was sold for commercial development. William F. Brooks, the architect of Hartford’s Municipal Building and the New Britain Public Library, persuaded the congregation to keep the original church’s steeple and portico and use them on the new church, completed in 1914, at the intersection of Albany Avenue and Vine Street. Thanks to this early work of historic preservation, the later building preserves an important part of a demolished historic structure. The Fourth Congregational Church merged in 1953 with Windsor Avenue Congregational Church to form the Horace Bushnell Congregational Church. The church is now home to Liberty Christian Center International. (more…)

Nathaniel Shipman House (1860)

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Nathaniel Shipman was a lawyer, Federal judge, and a founding partner of the law firm of Shipman & Goodwin, which is still prominent today. His house, on Charter Oak Place in Hartford, was built in 1860 in the Italianate style. Charter Oak Place was a fashionable neighborhood when Shipman moved there, and today has many surviving houses built between 1858 and 1875, including two Italianate double houses, the Kingsbury-Gatling House, the Robinson-Smith House and the Charles Northam House.

Wallace Stevens House (1926)

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Wallace Stevens was one of the most important poets of the twentieth century. Originally from Reading, Pennsylvania, he came to Hartford in 1916 , where he worked at the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company, eventually rising to become a vice-president. In 1932, Stevens purchased a 1926 Colonial Revival style house (designed by William T. Marchant) at 118 Westerly Terrace in Hartford. As he did not drive, Stevens would regularly walk the two miles from his home to his office, often walking through nearby Elizabeth Park as well. He would compose poems in his head during these walks. A non-profit group called the Friends and Enemies of Wallace Stevens seeks to increase awareness in the Hartford area of Stevens, who died in 1955, and his work. The house is now owned by Christ Church Cathedral.