Historic Buildings of Connecticut

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.

Photographs taken in the first decade of the 20th century provide a view of buildings that stood near Hartford, CT’s riverfront in its great days as a river port. In this video you will learn about the development of Ferry Street and the old days of Hartford’s trade with the West Indies. Also the first bridge across the Connecticut River here, built in 1809, and some of the people who lived and worked in the area, including Thomas Blake, firefighter and coppersmith, and Asa Farwell, famous for his cherry bounce.

Hartford, Connecticut’s riverfront has gone through many changes over the years. Long before the highway came through, the Valley Railroad was built in 1871 through the warehouse district by the river. A number of old warehouses and fish markets, documented in photographs in the 1860s and 1870s, were demolished around this time. I talk about them in this video, as well as a sycamore tree that survived next to the river from Hartford’s earliest colonial days, through its great era commercial activity along the river, and into the 1890s.