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

Born in Connecticut, Later Lived in Mansion in Pennsylvania.

Gifford Pinchot, who became the first head of the US Forest Service in Theodore Roosevelt’s administration and later served two separate stints as Governor of Pennsylvania, was born in his maternal grandfather’s home (pictured above) in Simsbury (now called the Simsbury 1820 House) on August 11, 1865. Pinchot’s father, James, erected a chateau-like mansion in Milford, PA in the mid-1880s. It was later the home of Gifford Pinchot and his wife Cornelia Bryce Pinchot. It’s not in Connecticut, but please check out my recent YouTube video about the mansion, which is called Grey Towers!

Sunny Reach: A Hartford Insurance Executive’s 1919 Estate and His Cattle Herd

My new Substack post is about the estate of Hartford insurance executive Carl F. Sturhahn, who had herds of Jersey cattle on his dairy farm over a century ago. His farm and Tudor-style mansion were surrounded by a bend of the North Branch of the Park River (near the University of Hartford campus). The property was later subdivided as the Sunny Reach real estate development in West Hartford. The former Sturhahn barn, erected in 1918, was converted into a residence in 1939 (a contemporary view is shown above).

New Video: Historic Landmark Treasures of Northern Main Street, Hartford CT

This video is about historic landmarks along Main Street in Hartford, north of the intersection with Albany Avenue up to the border with the Town of Windsor. The landmarks include the Fuller Brush Factory (currently undergoing redevelopment), the second oldest house in the city, another house that’s been called “The Mark Twain House of the North End,” historic cemeteries and several Black churches with long histories in the city. Many of the buildings played an important role in the city’s Jewish history.

New Video: The Lost Campus of Hartford Theological Seminary

This video is about the campus of the Hartford Theological Seminary, which stood on Broad Street in Hartford, CT. The main building, Hosmer Hall, was erected in 1879 and tensions with the contractors and the building committee led to the firing of the famous architect Francis H. Kimball. A decade later, work began on the adjacent Case Memorial Library building. The Seminary moved to a new campus on Sherman Street (now the home of UCONN Law School) in 1926 and Hosmer Hall was replaced by a Y.W.C.A. dormitory building (torn down in 1972). Before it was demolished in 1964, the former Case Memorial Library was home to the Hart School of Music from 1938 until 1963.

Latest Substack: Moving a building in Hartford back in 1917-1918

My latest Substack post is a supplement to my recent YouTube video on the extension of Hudson Street in Hartford in 1918. It gives more details about how a large tenement building was relocated to make way for the extension.

New Video: Hartford Buildings Destroyed by the Extension of Hudson Street

In 1918, Hudson Street in Hartford was extended north of Buckingham Street through Capitol Avenue to Elm Street and then across a new bridge over the Park River. The new road plowed through the middle of a block of row houses, a c. 1750 house (that has once been the home of Hartford’s first mayor and then President’s Lincoln’s Secretary of the Navy), and another old house built in the 1790s. The bridge over the Park River only existed for about a quarter-century before the river was put through an underground conduit and Pulaski Circle was created.

New Video: Hartford’s Lost Elm Street Armory

Video about Hartford’s lost Elm Street armory, which stood across from Bushnell Park. It started out in 1869 as a skating rink and in 1877 it became the armory of the state’s First Regiment. It soon had a new facade designed by architect George Keller. Its use as an armory ceased in 1909 and the building was torn down in 1924 to make way for the building at 55 Elm Street. In the video you will hear about some of the many events that took place at the armory over about a half century. You will also learn about the controversy in 1890, when the regiment’s officers were discharged by the governor in the wake of what was called the polo war.