Now lost, Hartford’s two oldest restaurants were the Honiss Oyster House (1845-1982) and the Marble Pillar (1860-1993). In this video I talk about the history of both these vanished institutions.
This video is about the now lost State Theater, where from 1926 to 1960 audiences flocked to see the greatest acts in show business in Hartford, Connecticut. Check out the video if you want to learn about this piece of Hartford history and remember to subscribe to the channel and hit the notification bell so you don’t miss any of my new videos!
The building at 180 Cherry Brook Road in Canton Center originally stood on the bank of Cherry Brook where it was built in 1830 by Norman Case as a woodworking shop. A flood in 1870 destroyed the stone dam on which this and other manufacturing operations in the vicinity depended. In 1874, Giles Sisson converted the carpenter shop’s upper floor into a social hall. The following year, brothers Austin and Myron Skinner of Middletown were persuaded by Rev. D. B. Hubbard of Canton Center’s Congregational Church to open a general store on the ground floor. The store has had many owners over the last century and a half. In 1886, while it was owned by George Lamphier, Sr., the store was moved east from Cherry Brook to its current location along Cherry Brook Road.
The house at 37 West Road in Canton was built in 1776 by Capt. John Brown III (1728-1776) to replace his earlier log cabin that stood west of the current house. As related in the 1860 book The Public Life of Capt. John Brown, by James Redpath:
John Brown, the third, at the outbreak of the revolutionary war, was chosen Captain of the West Simsbury (now Canton) trainband; and, in the spring of 1776, joined forces of the continental army at New York. His commission from Governor Trumbull is dated May 23, 1776. After a service of two months’ duration, he fell a victim to the prevailing epidemic of the camp, at the age of 48 years. He died in a barn, attended only by a faithful subordinate, a few miles north of New York City, where the continental army was at that time encamped. His body was buried on the Highlands, near the western bank of the East River.
Capt. Brown’s youngest son Abiel, who continued to live in the house until his death in 1856, wrote the book Genealogical History, with Short Sketches and Family Records, of the Early Settlers of West Simsbury, now Canton, Conn. (1856). Abiel’s brother Owen moved to Torrington and was the father of abolitionist John Brown. The younger John Brown later moved a monument to his grandfather, that once stood in the lot across the street from the house across from the house in Canton, to his farm in North Elba, New York. Brown was executed in 1859 and he was buried on his New York farm where his grave is marked by the same stone.
The house in Canton has a modern ell, shown on the right in the image above.
Pratt Street was once called Hartford’s Fifth Avenue because of the many specialty stores that lines this short block. In this video I talk about the history of the street, from its early days as a residential block, through its period of commercial development. I talk about such landmarks as Society for Savings, the now lost Hartford Female Seminary, the reconstructed Spencer House and the many commercial buildings that line the street, built between the 1880s and 1920s. I also mention the development projects that have transformed the street over the years, particularly in the late 1980s.
During one week in February of 1914, the City of Hartford, Connecticut experienced two devastating fires that gutted Union Station (February 21) and the Auditorium Building (originally called Allyn Hall). Union Station was rebuilt using the same brownstone walls, while the Auditorium was replaced by another theater.
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This video is about old days in Hartford, Connecticut when Frank’s Restaurant, the Majestic/E. M. Loews Theater, the Allyn Theater and the Allyn House Hotel stood on the block of Asylum Street between Trumbull Street and Ann Street that’s now the south side of the XL Center and Hartford 21 Building. This block is also where the house of Rev. T. C. Brownell, Episcopal Bishop and founder of Trinity College, was located.
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