This video is about the various buildings of Sage-Allen department store in Hartford, Connecticut. It first opened in 1889 at the corner of Main and Pratt Streets in a building previously occupied by the older dry goods store of Talcott & Post. In 1898, Sage-Allen erected its own building across the street, right next door to a building opened in 1894 by R. Ballerstein’s millinery store. Major expansions or alterations to Sage-Allen were opened in 1905, 1911, 1917, 1929 and 1967. The Hartford store closed in 1990.
New Video: Sage-Allen Department Store, Hartford CT
Hi! I grew up in Church Street and Ann St. across the street from Saint Patrick Church. My family moved to Church Street in 1965 and moved to Asylum Hill on 1973. Do you have any pictures of 284-286 Church Street ?
Thank you
Ana Huertas
Ana,
I don’t have pictures of that part of the block. You could try the Connecticut Historical Society or the Hartford History Center.
Dan
Oh, this is excellent! I worked in the advertising department at Sage-Allen beginning in around 1959 as the assistant to the elegant, sports-car-driving, Farmington-Viillage resident Marian Adams. Circa 1960, I developed the radio persona “Judy of Sage-Allen” to air ads on the Bob Steele Show on WTIC. I left Hartford in 1973 but continued to come back to do those spots until around 1975 when Lafayette Keeney said, “Enough!” In those years the store catered to a slightly less affluent clientele than G. Fox but was famous for its wonderful basement cafeteria and lending library. I remember being terrified of a large and stately eminence named “Chase Going Woodhouse,” a former congresswoman, who for some reason had an office on an upper floor of the store; she always fixed me with her gimlet eye in the elevator where I was usually doing something unladylike, chewing gum, or whistling.
Judith,
Thank you so much for sharing that! It would be interesting to hear those old radio spots!
Dan
I can tell you the products that the management most ardently wanted aired: BlueBell Matttresses, that I think was a local manufacturer, SS Pierce specialty grocery items, and for some reason, Princess Peggy House Dresses.
My parents, back in the 60’s got to be very good friends with the proprietors of the luncheonette. It is too bad their porky boy Ira and I could never get along as classmates @ the robinson School for boys. Sage -Allen always was a nice place to shot be it downtown or Windsor!
I remember there was a cafeteria for customers
My grandmother worked at Sage-Allen and it was a special treat for me to have lunch with her in the cafeteria. They made the best chicken salad and the coleslaw was out of this world! It’s very nice of you to bring these wonderful memories back to us.
Fawn Banks: Thanks for watching, I appreciate it!
Dan