My latest FREE in-person presentation is at the Elmwood Senior Center in West Hartford, July 9 at 10:30 AM. Come learn about the buildings (surviving and lost) and notable personalities of Colonial and Revolutionary era Hartford! Call 860-561-8180 to register!
My latest in-person presentation is about Hartford’s Lost Riverfront at the Windsor Senior Center (599 Matianuck Avenue, Windsor, CT) Wednesday June 10 at 12:30 PM. Call to register: 860-285-1992. For centuries, Hartford was an active port along the Connecticut River, with numerous wharfs, dockyard businesses and warehouses connected to the West Indies trade. Learn about the many buildings and fascinating personalities associated with the old riverfront, which was gradually lost to the development of modern bridges and highways. You can find my other upcoming presentations here: Upcoming Presentations – Daniel Sterner
In my latest Substack post, I consider where the House of Hope, the fort constructed by the Dutch in 1633, was located in Hartford. I’ve circled in red the location of the Dutch House of Hope in the map above that depicts Hartford in 1636 in William DeLoss Love’s 1914 book The Colonial History of Hartford.
The lost homestead of Rev. Thomas Hooker, founder of Hartford, once stood on Arch Street (pictured above in an illustration from John Warner Barber’s Connecticut Historical Collections, published in 1836, by which time the house was already demolished). The property was later the site of the Phoenix Iron Works, which played a vital role in the city’s rise to be a center of precision manufacturing. Read about this fascinating story in my latest Substack post.
My latest Substack post is about a historic house that stood right on the site of Travelers Tower in Hartford. It went from being a private home in the nineteenth century to serving as the home of social clubs for two decades before it was torn down. The clubs were: The Colonial Club (which was there from when it was organized in 1895 until it merged with the Hartford Club in 1901), the Touro Club (a Jewish club that was there from 1901 until Travelers Insurance bought the house in 1914), and a brief tenure of the Travelers Club (1915-1916) before the house was torn down.
My latest Substack post is about a factory complex in Hartford that grew from 1916 until it was finally demolished in 1997. Originally built by a Swedish company to make ball bearings, it was later greatly expanded by G. F. Heublein & Bro., the famous liquor and food company that brought Smirnoff Vodka and A.1. Steak Sauce to America. A cineplex built on the site recently closed and the property is again slated for redevelopment.
My latest Substack post is about a house that was built in the early 1820s by Henry L, Ellsworth (son of Founding Father Oliver Ellsworth). It stood on Prospect Street and from 1872 to 1907 was the headquarters of Travelers Insurance. It was torn down in 1931 to make way for the art deco Hartford Steam Boiler building. The image above contrasts the house before and after it was vastly enlarged by Travelers.
https://open.substack.com/pub/oldhartford/p/from-historic-home-to-insurance-hq?r=4j8x6h&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
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