This video is about what Ann Uccello Street in Hartford was like before the Civic Center was built. It covers the section between Asylum Street and the highway. On the west side, the Morse School building, the Russian Lady building, the former Masonic Temple, the old Hartford Wire Works building (now home to Agave and Aladdin restaurants) and St. Patrick – St. Anthony Church survive, but the old Foster/Weldon Block and St. Patrick – St. Anthony School are lost. On the east side of Ann Street, where the Civic Center stands today, there were once many old buildings, including Engine Company No. 4, home of the “Pride of Hartford,” and a Y.W.C.A. building. Just to the north was the lost Hotel Hartford.
In this video I talk about Pippie’s and B. DePasquale & Sons on Front Street, the Clover Leaf Cafe’s La Rosa Dining Room and Mickey’s Villanova on Market Street and the origins of Frank’s Restaurant.
Now lost, Hartford’s two oldest restaurants were the Honiss Oyster House (1845-1982) and the Marble Pillar (1860-1993). In this video I talk about the history of both these vanished institutions.
This video is about the now lost State Theater, where from 1926 to 1960 audiences flocked to see the greatest acts in show business in Hartford, Connecticut. Check out the video if you want to learn about this piece of Hartford history and remember to subscribe to the channel and hit the notification bell so you don’t miss any of my new videos!
The building at 180 Cherry Brook Road in Canton Center originally stood on the bank of Cherry Brook where it was built in 1830 by Norman Case as a woodworking shop. A flood in 1870 destroyed the stone dam on which this and other manufacturing operations in the vicinity depended. In 1874, Giles Sisson converted the carpenter shop’s upper floor into a social hall. The following year, brothers Austin and Myron Skinner of Middletown were persuaded by Rev. D. B. Hubbard of Canton Center’s Congregational Church to open a general store on the ground floor. The store has had many owners over the last century and a half. In 1886, while it was owned by George Lamphier, Sr., the store was moved east from Cherry Brook to its current location along Cherry Brook Road.
John Brown, the third, at the outbreak of the revolutionary war, was chosen Captain of the West Simsbury (now Canton) trainband; and, in the spring of 1776, joined forces of the continental army at New York. His commission from Governor Trumbull is dated May 23, 1776. After a service of two months’ duration, he fell a victim to the prevailing epidemic of the camp, at the age of 48 years. He died in a barn, attended only by a faithful subordinate, a few miles north of New York City, where the continental army was at that time encamped. His body was buried on the Highlands, near the western bank of the East River.
Pratt Street was once called Hartford’s Fifth Avenue because of the many specialty stores that lines this short block. In this video I talk about the history of the street, from its early days as a residential block, through its period of commercial development. I talk about such landmarks as Society for Savings, the now lost Hartford Female Seminary, the reconstructed Spencer House and the many commercial buildings that line the street, built between the 1880s and 1920s. I also mention the development projects that have transformed the street over the years, particularly in the late 1980s.
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