Historic structures like the original Connecticut State House of 1719, the Jeremiah Wadsworth House, which stood on the site of the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, some of the city’s lost colonial taverns and coffee houses, and a tavern that still stands in Andover, CT play a role in my new video about the historic first meeting of George Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau in 1780.
In the 20th century, large sections of downtown Hartford were torn down to be replaced by new buildings and massive urban renewal projects. But the worst situations are when buildings were torn down and only replaced by a parking lot. In this video I give 8 examples of what was lost.
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Large sections of downtown Hartford, Connecticut were destroyed in the 1950s to 1980s to make way for large-scale building projects. We may debate the quality and benefits of what was built, but the lost neighborhoods can not be replaced. Let me know in the comments what you think of my list of obliterations.
John Pierpont Morgan, the famous banker of the Gilded Age, was born in Hartford, Connecticut. His grandfather, Joseph Morgan, had arrived in Hartford in 1816 and had success as the owner of the popular Exchange Coffee House. Joseph’s son, Junius Spencer Morgan, was a partner in a Hartford dry goods business before he left to become a prominent banker in London. J. Pierpont Morgan was born in his grandfather’s house on Asylum Street in 1837 and his childhood home was on Farmington Avenue. His Hartford cousins were the prominent Goodwin brothers. J. S. and J. P. Morgan were generous benefactors of the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford. They are buried in the city’s Cedar Hill Cemetery.
This video is about the branches in downtown Hartford of four major variety stores: F. W. Woolworth Co., W. T. Grant Co., J. J. Newberry Co., and S. S. Kresge Co.
This video is about a section of Main Street in Hartford that was depicted in a 1774 map showing several buildings that existed there at the time. In the video I talk about the people who occupied these structures, including a pastor who was dismissed for drunkenness, an indebted surgeon and apothecary who sold enslaved people, and a young widow who took the Connecticut Courant newspaper.
My latest video might be the strangest yet! I track the rising prices of Thanksgiving menu items at the Capitol Grill in Hartford from 1937 to 1970. Happy Thanksgiving!