Connecticut Archives - Page 29 of 39

Market Street from Temple Street, Hartford, Connecticut

August 28, 2016 by Derek Strahan

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.

Talcott Street from Market Street, Hartford, Connecticut

August 28, 2016 by Derek Strahan

Looking west on Talcott Street from Market Street, toward Main Street, around 1903-1906. Image courtesy of the Connecticut State Library.

Talcott Street in 2016:

These two photos were taken at the same intersection as the previously posted ones here and here, just facing in a different direction. Like the photos in earlier posts, nothing is left from the early 20th century view here. Most of the neighborhood was demolished by the early 1960s, but this section here, with its close proximity to Main Street, was demolished even sooner. In 1918, Hartford’s G. Fox department store built their new flagship store at the top of the hill on the left, and in the following decades the company expanded their facility here.

All of the buildings from the first photo were gone by the 1930s, and by this point G. Fox extended all the way from Main to Market Street, and included a parking garage across Talcott Street, which was connected via a two-story walkway over the street. The company closed in 1993 after a merger with Filene’s, which was then subsequently merged with Macy’s in 2005. The old G. Fox buildings are still standing here, though, and part of the original building is now the home of the Capital Community College, while other parts have been vacant for years.

Market Street from Talcott Street, Hartford, Connecticut (2)

August 28, 2016 by Derek Strahan

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

The scene in 2016:

Taken from the same location as those in the previous post, these photos show the view in the opposite direction, looking north on Market Street. To the right is the Brown School, a public school that was built in 1869 at the northeast corner of Market and Talcott. It was expanded in 1897 as the neighborhood grew, with large numbers of immigrants moving into this part of the city. The children roughhousing in the foreground were probably students at the school, and many were likely first-generation Americans with immigrant parents.

Today, the school and the rest of the neighborhood have long since been demolished. The narrow street from the first photo is now a five-lane thoroughfare, with tall parking garages on either side and Interstate 84 a block away in the distance.

Market Street from Talcott Street, Hartford, Connecticut

August 27, 2016 by Derek Strahan

Looking south on Market Street from the corner of Talcott Street, on September 19, 1904. Image courtesy of the Connecticut State Library.

Market Street in 2016:

In these early 20th century views of the east side of Hartford, a common theme is that none of the historic buildings are still standing today. Anything that was left standing by the early 1960s was demolished to build Constitution Plaza, but in this scene there was one exception. St. Anthony’s Church, located on the right side of the street, is only partially visible in the first photo, but today it is the last surviving 19th century building in what had once been a large immigrant neighborhood.

Built in 1855, the church was originally St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, but by the time the first photo was taken it was St. Anthony’s, a Catholic church that served the area’s large Italian-American population. The building no longer serves as a church, but it still stands out amid modern office buildings as a reminder of the residential neighborhood that was once located here.

Morgan Street from Market Street, Hartford, Connecticut

August 27, 2016 by Derek Strahan

Looking west on Morgan Street from Market Street, in May 1906. Image courtesy of the Connecticut State Library.

Morgan Street in 2016:

Like the view a little further east on Morgan Street, nothing is left from the first photo. Along with the other scenes of this neighborhood, the first photo shows a mix of architecture, dating as far back as the first half of the 19th century. By 1906, the street included some mid-19th century commercial buildings as well as several Greek Revival homes mixed in. Most of the signs are not readable with the photo resolution, but one on the far left indicates that the building was the home of the Socialist Educational Political Club.

Today, along with all of the buildings being demolished, even Morgan Street itself has been changed. In the first photo, it had trolley tracks running down the middle, but it now has an interstate highway in the middle. The street now consists of parallel eastbound and westbound sections, separated by Interstate 84. To the right in the 2016 photo is one of the highway ramps, connecting eastbound traffic on I-84 to northbound I-91.

Temporary Bridge, Hartford, Connecticut

August 27, 2016 by Derek Strahan

The bridge across the Connecticut River at Hartford, seen from the East Hartford side on September 9, 1903. Image courtesy of the Connecticut State Library.

The scene in 2016:

For many years, the only bridge across the Connecticut River at Hartford was here at the site of the Bulkeley Bridge. In 1818, a covered bridge was built here, and it survived until May 17, 1895, when it was destroyed in a fire. With no other crossings available, a makeshift bridge was quickly built upstream of the ruins, opening just three weeks later. Before the end of the year it was washed away, but was replaced with the temporary bridge that is seen in the first photo.

As inconvenient as the loss of the old covered bridge may have been, it allowed Hartford the opportunity to build an elegant new bridge that reflected the city’s prosperity and importance. When the first photo was taken, work had already begun on building the Bulkeley Bridge and reconstructing Morgan Street on the Hartford side of the bridge. The temporary bridge was demolished after the new one was completed in 1908. The bridge has since been joined by two others in Hartford, but it still plays an important role in the city’s transportation, carrying Interstate 84 and US Routes 6 and 44. At over 100 years old, it is possibly the oldest bridge in the Interstate Highway System, predating the actual establishment of the highway system by nearly 50 years.