Our Saviour’s Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church (1891)

Another Scandinavian church in Frog Hollow in Hartford was built in 1891 at the corner of Russ Street and Babcock Street. Our Saviour’s Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church was organized in 1883, making it the oldest Lutheran Church in continuous existence in the Hartford area. It was located in Frog Hollow until the 1950s, when the congregation moved to West Hartford Road in Newington. In 1967, the church merged with Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, which had been founded by Swedish immigrants in 1945. The church, unified under the name Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, is located at 1655 Main Street in Newington. The old church building in Hartford is now home to Iglesia Adventista Del 7mo Dia.

Swedish Zion Congregational Church (1892)

Over a century ago, Hartford’s Frog Hollow neighborhood was home to a significant Scandinavian immigrant community. A number of churches were established at the time. I’ve previously featured the Swedish Bethel Baptist Church on this site (it’s also mentioned in Tour 9 in my new book, A Guide to Historic Hartford, Connecticut). Nearby, at 87 Russ Street, at the corner of Hungerford Street, is another church built by a group of Swedes. In 1883, Rev. C. J. Erixon, a home missionary for the Congregational Church, began preaching to Swedish immigrants in Hartford. The group became known as the Swedish Evangelical Free Church. In 1889, L. W. A. Bjorkman became the first permanent pastor and the congregation took a new name, the Swedish Evangelical Zion Church (Svenska Evangeliska Zion-kongregationalförsamlingen i Hartford), also known as the Swedish Zion Congregational Church. In 1890, the church became part of the local branch of the Evangelical Covenant Church, which was largely a Swedish denomination at the time. From 1892 to 1960, the church was located at the building in Frog Hollow. In 1938, the church changed its name to the Covenant Congregational Church and in 1960 the church moved to West Hartford, where most of its membership resided. The Hartford church building was sold to the Hartford Full Gospel Church (the address is now 77 Hungerford Street).

Linus B. Plimpton House (1884)

Designed by architect John C. Mead and built in 1884, the Romanesque-style Linus B. Plimpton House is located at 847 Asylum Street in the Asylum Hill neighborhood of Hartford. In 1865, Linus B. Plimpton (who was originally from Southridge, MA) established a business in Hartford manufacturing envelopes. The Plimpton Manufacturing Company won an important contract in 1874 to produce stamped envelops for the U.S. government. The prize was awarded by Postmaster General Marshall Jewell, a Hartford resident and former governor of Connecticut. The modern descendant of the old manufacturing firm continues to exist as Plimpton’s, a stationery retail store in West Hartford Center. The old Plimpton House on Asylum Avenue is now used for elderly housing. For further reading on the Plimpton Manufacturing Company, see the following pdf files: The History of Envelopes and “A Specialized Study of the Plimpton Manufacturing Co., Hartford, Connecticut High Value U.S. Postal Stationer.”

Boce W. Barlow Jr. House (1926)

At 31 Canterbury Street in Hartford is a house featured in Tour 8 of my new book, A Guide to Historic Hartford, Connecticut. Built in 1926, it was later the home of Boce W. Barlow, Jr. (1915-2005), the first African-American in the Connecticut judiciary, being appointed judge of Hartford’s municipal court in 1957 and, later, a hearing examiner for Connecticut’s Civil Rights Commission. He also became Connecticut’s first African American state senator when he was elected in 1966. When Barlow and his wife, Catherine Swanson Barlow, first moved to the house in 1958, they were Canterbury Street’s first black family. Born in Americus, Georgia, in 1915, Boce W. Barlow, Jr. moved to Connecticut with his family the following year. He graduated from Hartford Public High School in 1933 and went on to attend Howard University and Harvard Law School. Boce Barlow Way, a street in Hartford, was named in his honor in 1987.

31-33 Lewis Street, Hartford (1928)

At 31-33 Lewis Street in Hartford is a Georgian Revival office building built in 1928 and designed by William F. Brooks. It matches well stylistically with the neighboring early nineteenth-century residences on Lewis Street. Recently rehabilitated, the building is back-to-back with the Trumbull on the Park apartment complex. To learn more about Lewis Street and other sites in Hartford, buy my new book, A Guide to Historic Hartford, Connecticut.

The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company (1932)

The former headquarters building of the Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company, at 56 Prospect Street in Hartford, is currently vacant. An Art Deco structure built in 1932, it was designed by Carl J. Malmfeldt. This block of Prospect Street was once the site of two lost Hartford landmarks: the old headquarters of the Travelers Insurance Company and Parson’s Theatre. To learn about the founding of Hartford Steam Boiler and find out about other great sites in downtown Hartford, check out Tour 1 in my new book, A Guide to Historic Hartford, Connecticut.

Haley Manors (1898)

In 1981-1982, three nineteenth-century buildings on Capen Street in Hartford, each with 6-units, were converted into cooperatively-owned housing and named “Haley Manors” after Alex Haley, the author of Roots. The property for the project was donated by Rev. Dr. Lincoln J. Davis Sr., founder and President of Lincoln Enterprises, one of the first minority-owned business development corporations in Hartford. Two of the buildings, at 42-44 Capen Street (see image above) and 46-48 Capen Street (see image below), are wood-frame structures that follow the same basic plan with different decorative details on each building. They were built in 1898 by Henry D. Ely. The third building, located at 36-38 Capen Street (see image below), is a brick Italianate, built around 1875. These buildings are mentioned in Tour 8 in my new book, A Guide to Historic Hartford, Connecticut. (more…)