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

New Video: Main Street in Hartford Before the Gold Building

The stretch of Main Street in Hartford, Connecticut that’s now occupied by the Gold Building is very historic. It was once the site of landmarks that included the 1780s home where prominent businessman and philanthropist James B. Hosmer lived from the age of two until he died two days before his 97th birthday, the building that was occupied from 1828 to 1964 by the city’s second oldest continuously operating business, the Sisson Drug Company, the building where the Young Men’s Institute (forerunner of the Hartford Public Library) had its first permanent home and stage where Mark Twain made his acting debut in 1876.

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.