READ THIS: Vanished Downtown Hartford by Daniel Sterner Our Coverage Sponsored by Stribling and Associates
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Did you know that J.P. Morgan was born on Asylum Street in Hartford...Peachy Deegan was also born in Hartford, and spent a lot of time there growing up at hockey games, so we were delighted to have the opportunity to read Vanished Downtown Hartford by Daniel Sterner, a wonderful book published by The History Press. It presents a look at Hartford's former glory and the beautiful buildings that once graced its skyline that we wish were still there today. Hartford used to be a fantastic city and Vanished Downtown Hartford we hope will inspire many to restore it and build it up again.
Many people do not know Hartford as well as New York or Boston; it lies about halfway inbetween the two and the map on page 12 you will find helpful. Hartford is the insurance capital of the world and it's great to see how an English trip started this industry: Sterner includes that. In the great days of the Hartford Whalers culminating in the 1986 Adams Division Championship, Hartford was quite different from what we see today. We were delighted to see Frank's Restaurant mentioned on page 71; it was a great place right down to their stirrers:
It's probable that this was from Peachy's Shirley Temple at the time. The Old State House, around since 1796, we are glad to stay is still standing and functions as a museum today; Peachy went on a field trip there in 4th grade. On the trip she bought red pencils that said: Hartford was founded by a Hooker; Thomas Hooker that is! We wish we could have seen the City Hotel, where Charles Dickens was a guest (get excited for our upcoming review on The Invisible Woman!) This book contains interesting tidbits: Heublein was the first to bottle cocktails in Hartford in 1892. The first cookbook written by an American also happened in Hartford; this book does a great job telling about Landmarks but also contains great stories to add color. We loved the chapter on department stores and miss G. Fox and Sage Allen. The photography contained will wow everyone that has ever been to Hartford and this book is a must-read.
Vanished Downtown Hartford is Highly Recommended by Whom You Know.
Early nineteenth-century illustrations of Hartford, Connecticut, show church steeples towering over the Victorian homes and brownstone façades of businesses around them. The modern skyline of the town has lost many of these elegant steeples and their quaint and smaller neighbors. Banks have yielded to newer banks, and organizations like the YMCA are now parking lots. In the 1960s, Constitution Plaza replaced an entire neighborhood on Hartford’s east side. The city has evolved in the name of progress, allowing treasured buildings to pass into history. Those buildings that survive have been repurposed—the Old State House, built in 1796, is one of the oldest and has found new life as a museum. Yet the memory of these bygone landmarks and scenes has not been lost. Historian Daniel Sterner recalls the lost face of downtown and preserves the historic landmarks that still remain with this nostalgic exploration of Hartford’s structural evolution.
Daniel Sterner majored in history at Wesleyan University and earned a master’s degree in Middle Eastern studies at the University of Chicago. He has been a guide at the Mark Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe Houses in Hartford and the Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum in Wethersfield, Connecticut. His website, Historic Buildings of Connecticut (historicbuildingsct.com), and his previous book, A Guide to Historic Hartford, Connecticut, have both won awards from the Hartford Preservation Alliance.
ISBN: 978-1-60949-895-5 • Paperback • 176 pages
