The unusual granite Greek Revival home of Charles Merritt is on Monument Street in Groton Bank. It was most likely built by the same Charles Merritt who was a stonecutter in Groton and was in business with John Salter and Robert A. Gray, the latter of whom won the Medal of Honor in the Civil War. They had a quarry on Thames Street.
Charles Merritt House (1855)
Home Value Index in Hartford Region, 1910-2010I find it very interesting that, in 1910, Hartford had one of the heshigt home value indexes in the area, and yet it very quickly became the area with the lowest home value index. Even if affluent white citizens began moving out to the suburbs, it does not seem like this alone could explain such a significant drop in home values. This is especially true considering that the reading in “American Apartheid” mentioned that rapid growth in confined minority neighborhoods led to prices actually increasing due to the upward pressure of high demand. This seems to be proof that deliberate discriminatory practices were occurring with the intention of subordinating minority populations. After looking at the Federal HOLC “Redlining” Map, I see that there were racial policies in place within the city that could have inhibited the ability of home values to follow natural patterns. Even after civil rights legislation would have led to the dismantling of these policies, it appears that their effects are long-lived. I wonder how this sort of information could inform housing policies, and whether these past discriminatory practices need to be directly addressed before home values in Hartford can begin to recover.