Videos

Before Dunkin’ (Donuts) Park was built in Hartford, Connecticut, there was a parking lot and before that a car dealership there. But before that there was a dense row of buildings that included a hotel, as well as wall paper, hardware and furniture stores. Find out about this lost piece of Old Hartford. Also, check out my 1 minute log YouTube short about the Webb House in Wethersfield: https://youtube.com/shorts/KRde3UyBGnc?si=_kkntKyBST93nRS5

My Books (These are links to Amazon and as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases):

A Guide to Historic Hartford, Connecticut: https://amzn.to/4bNbiAR

Vanished Downtown Hartford: https://amzn.to/3IhK7Ao

This video focuses on the buildings of Saint Francis Hospital that were built before the early 1970s, some of which survive and some of which are lost. These include the old Chinese Education Mission and Saint Thomas Seminary buildings on Collins Street that were later demolished. I also talk about the former National Fire Insurance Company Building on Farmington Avenue that the hospital acquired in the 1970s and the historic Collins and Dunham Houses once stood there. I end by briefly mentioning the hospital’s more recent buildings, including the parking garage currently under construction.

This video gives a brief history of the houses on Charter Oak Place in the city of Hartford, Connecticut. I talk about houses that survive from the nineteenth century as well as a few houses that have been lost.

This video is about an early movie theater in Hartford that existed on Asylum Street from 1912 until 1927. The Empire Theater was a conversion of a former Methodist Church that was built in 1860. Stories in this video include tales from the snow storm of 1915, a boy who fell asleep and was locked in the theater, and the acrimonious end of the Empire.

In this video I talk about 10 lost movie theaters that once existed in downtown Hartford, Connecticut. I also mention several more theaters that existed beyond downtown.

This is a video about the Dutch Point power plant that stood along the Connecticut River in Hartford from 1904 until 1962. I also talk about the South Meadow power plant, the burying of the Park River and construction of the highway.

In this video I talk about the great log drives down the Connecticut River from northern New Hampshire to Massachusetts and to Hartford, Connecticut, where millions of feet of logs were brought (circa 1876 to 1885) to the saw mill at Dutch Point.