Historic Buildings of Connecticut - Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Upcoming Virtual Talk: “Serving Up History: When Hartford Was a Retail Hub”

Hosted by the Webb Deane Stevens Museum. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2023 AT 12:30 PM.

When Hartford Was a Retail Hub: the Growth of the City’s Great Department Stores (1890s – 1960s)

Hartford was once a thriving center for retail, with several large department stores, including the legendary G. Fox & Co. Daniel will talk about the development of the city’s major department stores, comparing the different ways they grew from small dry goods outlets into multi-department retail complexes. Stores to be discussed include Brown-Thomson, Sage-Allen, Wise-Smith and, of course, G. Fox – which became the nation’s largest privately-owned department store. The discussion is free on Zoom. Registration is required.

Samuel Fielding House (1750)

The gambrel-roofed colonial cape-style house at 25 Marjorie Circle in Hebron was built c. 1745-1750 by Samuel Feilding. Soon after construction it was owned by Rev. Benjamin Pomeroy (1735-1784), a congregational minister who was influenced by the First Great Awakening. In 1791 the house was acquired by Amasa Gillett, whose widow later married Benjamin Phelps (the house was later called the Widow Polly Phelps Place). Gillett’s daughter Sibyl, who lived in the house until her death at the age of 95, made bonnets and had her shop in the house in the 1850s. Earlier, in 1835 the largest room in the house was used for Miss Bradford’s school for select young ladies. There is also a gambrel-roofed barn on the property.

New Video: A Lost Section of Main Street, Hartford CT

What used to be on Main Street between Center Church and the Gold Building? In this video I talk about a 1771 schoolhouse, the original 1764 home of the Hartford Courant, the Kellogg Brothers lithographers who rivaled Currier and Ives, Augustus Washington, who was a successful African-American daguerreotypist, John Porter, who founded one of New England’s first lunchroom chains, and more!

Walker Ferry House (1850)

Built circa 1850 and much altered in later years, the house at 10 Chestnut Street in Bethel was the home of shoemaker Walker Ferry, who had his shoe store in the building next door at 12 Chestnut Street. By 1867 the house was the residence of William Judson, a hatter, who had married Emeline Judd in 1849.

New Video: The G. Fox & Co. Christmas Village

This video remembers the two Christmas villages that appeared on the marquee of the G. Fox & Company department store in Hartford, Connecticut. The first village was created in 1959 and the second in 1967. Original 8mm movie of the Christmas village from 1960: https://youtu.be/B9W3Nr5UZHE

New Video: Before the Stilts Building: A Glimpse of Old Hartford

Before the Stilts building was erected in Hartford in 1981 there were numerous historic structures that once stood on the block of Main Street, north of the intersection with Church Street, including the Strand Theater, the American Industrial Building, a well-remembered 19th-century hotel and the home of the beloved Peanut Store.

New Video: The old Lord & Taylor, Bishops Corner, West Hartford

Lord & Taylor had its first department store outside the greater New York area at Bishops Corner in West Hartford Connecticut. In this video I describe the store, which opened with great fanfare in 1953 and moved out (to Westfarms Mall) in 1983. I also talk about the adjacent shopping center, the Dutchland Farms dairy restaurant and summer pony rides that had previously existed on the site in the 1930s and 40s, and the attempts by local residents to block the building of Lord & Taylor.