Commercial Buildings

Looking south on Market Street from Temple Street, on April 22, 1906. Image courtesy of the Connecticut State Library.

Market Street in 2016:

Taken from the same spot as the photos in the previous post, these photos here show Market Street in the opposite direction, toward State Street. This section of the street is closer to the center of downtown Hartford, so while the previous post shows older buildings used primarily for housing immigrants, this block is more commercially developed. The building on the far right in the first photo was the police station, which was built on the site of the old city hall. In the distance is the American Hotel, which was located across State Street. It opened during the first half of the 19th century, and was a prominent Hartford hotel for many years, before being demolished in 1925.

Along with the American Hotel, all of the other buildings in the first photo were eventually demolished. Based on the architecture, most of these brick commercial buildings were probably built around the 1870s or 1880s, although the wooden Greek Revival building on the left is undoubtedly older. However, they were all demolished by the late 1950s and early 1960s, when the section of Hartford north of State Street and east of Main Street was demolished and redeveloped to build Constitution Plaza.

Looking north on Market Street from Temple Street, around 1903-1906. Image courtesy of the Connecticut State Library.

Market Street in 2016:

This view shows the same block as the photos in an earlier post, just viewed from the opposite direction. Like in the previous post, the only building left standing is the former St. Anthony’s Church on the left. The church is mostly hidden by other buildings in the first photo, but the cross and part of the roof are visible just to the left of the center. Aside from the church, the rest of the buildings in the first photo were a mix of residential and commercial uses, including businesses such as Sharff’s First Class Barber Shop on the left. The same building also had a bicycle shop, and several young boys appear to be looking at the bicycles that were on display on the sidewalk. According to a 1903 city directory, the building also had a laundromat, which was run by Chinese immigrant Quong Chung.

Along with Chung, there were plenty of other immigrants who lived in this neighborhood. The upper floors of the building on the left were used as a boarding house, and at the 1900 census there were at least 14 people living here, most of whom were either born in Ireland or had parents who were born there. Across the street, Quong Chung lived in the three-story, flat-roofed building on the right, which was also home to other immigrants from Switzerland, Germany, Ireland, and Russia. All of these buildings, with the exception of the church, were demolished by the early 1960s, when the neighborhood was redeveloped into Constitution Plaza.

Looking west on Talcott Street from Front Street (now Columbus Boulevard) in Hartford, around 1903-1906. Image courtesy of the Connecticut State Library.

Talcott Street in 2016:

As mentioned in previous posts, this neighborhood along Front Street in the eastern part of Hartford was once home to a large Italian community. When the first photo was taken, the building on the right was owned by Felix Mainello, an Italian immigrant who operated a saloon at the corner. His wife Mary was also an immigrant, from Ireland, and they lived in the back part of the building along Talcott Street. They also rented out apartments in the building, with the 1910 census showing 9 other households with a total of 42 people, nearly all of whom were born in Italy. A good number of them only spoke Italian, and many had vague occupations like “Laborer” working “odd jobs.”

As with the rest of the neighborhood, this entire scene was demolished between 1958 and 1962 to build Constitution Plaza. Today, there is nothing left from the original photo in the two blocks between here and Main Street in the distance. The site of Mainello’s saloon is now a parking garage, and in the distance modern high-rise buildings line Main Street, with several pedestrian walkways over Talcott Street as well.

Looking north on Front Street (now Columbus Boulevard) from the corner of Temple Street, on April 1, 1906. Image courtesy of the Connecticut State Library.

Columbus Boulevard in 2016:

Taken just a little further north from an earlier post, there is a lot going on in the first photo. The photo was taken on a Sunday, and the shadows indicate that it was sometime in the morning, so the street is busy, perhaps with people heading to or from church. This neighborhood had a large immigrant population, especially Italians, and many of the boys posing for the photographer in the distance were probably first generation Americans. The buildings in this scene are a mix of architectural styles, with most probably dating back to the mid-19th century, and there are a number of shops in the first floor storefronts, including a grocery store on the far left at the corner of Temple Street, and what appears to be a bar on the far right.

It was once Hartford’s “Little Italy,” but the largely poor neighborhood was hit hard by floods in 1936 and 1938, and over the next couple of decades it continued to decay. Because of its close proximity to downtown, it was eyed for redevelopment, so from 1958 to 1962 the entire neighborhood was demolished to build Constitution Plaza. The project added high-rise buildings to the area, but over the years it has also received widespread criticism for displacing its residents and isolating the plaza from the rest of the city, creating nearly empty streetscapes like the 2016 photo here.