HARTFORD, CT

[ctman987]

Population: 121,578

Greater Hartford Area Population: 1,298,907

Airport: Bradley Internation Airport Windsor Locks, CT

Location: At intersection of I-84 and I-91

25 minutes south of Springfield

30 minutes north of New Haven

2 hours from NYC

1.5 hours from Boston

Hartford Skyline from East Hartford

City Place Tower 1 (38 floors, tallest building in CT) and Goodwin Square (30 floors) from Bushnell Park

55 on the Park Apartments: Conversion of former SNET building into 130 apartments

Metropolitan Condos: Building being converted into 66 luxury condos

Trumball on the Park Apartments: New construction, 88 units in a new 12 story brick building and 12 units in renovated historic homes on Lewis street, ground floor retail space to include a wine/cheese shop, Quizzno

[ctman987]

CT Childrens Medical Center at Hartford Hospital

CT Expo Center NORTH MEADOWS): 88,000 square feet of exhibition space, 3 meeting rooms

Dodge Music Center (NORTH MEADOWS): 6200 seats in covered pavilion, lawn can accommodate 18,000, concession stands

Hartford Seminary (WEST END): Due to its growing size the seminary in 1972 decided to consolidate its 3 campuses into one big building (pictured), construction of the building began in 1978 and ended in 1981, the building has a meeting room, chapel, library, book store, and classrooms.

UCONN School of Law (WEST END) : One of the leading law schools in the country, the campus is listed on the National Register of Historic Sites, new law library, founded in 1921

Clemsns Place (WEST END): 41 renovated historic buildings on 17 acres with 583 apartments

Farmington Avenue (West End): Same street as the Mark Twain House and Harriett Beecher Stowe House

Franklin Avenue (SOUTH END) Little Italy area

Wethersfield Ave (SOUTH END)

[nickmgray]

Nice, it looks like the city is really growing. Are most the new developments condos or office space? Seens to have good street life to the city as well. Whats the current downtown population?

[ctman987]

Most of the new projects are condos/apartments/townhouses. Hartford became more of a 9-5 workplace after the construction of Constitution Plaza which brought hundreds of thousands of square feet of office space to downtown but no new apartments and in the 20-25 years after that the city saw a huge influx of high rise office towers built while thousands of people who lived in the central business district left for other neighborhoods or the suburbs. Now the aim is to bring people back into the city (the rest of Hartfords neighborhoods are active 24/7 except for the central business district which is more of a 9-5 place but that is changing. There is some office space being made but nothing extensive because in the Hartford area the suburbs outweight Hartford and the suburbs try to compete with Hartford for its jobs.

To be quite honest with you I dont know what the downtown (central business district) population is but I know right now it is preety low because there is only one major apartment complex downtown (Bushnell Towers) and another one just opened. But more then 1200 apartments/townhouses/condos will be occupied by this time next year so that will boost the downtown pop and the city hopes to in the coming years bring in a total of about 3000 apartments/townhouses/condos downtown

[JC3124]

As of the 2000 census, there was approx. 1,200 people living downtown. All the new additions could easily double that figure, if not triple it, with the optimal number to end up between 10,000 and 15,000.

[ctman987]

That sounds about right. The ultimate goal is to get people lving downtown as they do in all of Hartfords 16 other neighborhoods. Hartford was and still is in many ways a hub for business and downtown is where all this business happens. (AETNA, ING, Travelers, MassMutual, Bank of America, CB Richard Ellis, Advest, UBS, Citizens Bank, Prudential, IBM, Peoples Bank, United Technologies, Citigroup, UnitedHealthcare, Hartford Steam Boiler, U.S. Bank, Lincoln Financial, Soverign Bank, Pricewaterhousecooper and Hewlett Packard all have offices downtown) But all these people then leave to go home to usally the suburbs and spend money there but if Hartford is trying to get people to move downtown, and get them a reason to stay downtown after work or come into downtown on the weekend.

[CSP]

Great photos Ctman, I like the One Financial Plaza although I don't know if I would be safe to work in it

[Urban_Legend]

What a great mix of architecture in that city! Looks like a thriving downtown.

[ctman987]

Great photos Ctman, I like the One Financial Plaza although I don't know if I would be safe to work in it  

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The Stilts Building has and continues to be structurally sound since it was built in 1981. The sad part about this particular building is that it was sold to a high profile New York developer who owns this building, the Bond Hotel, and a site in the citys commericialized North Meadows that will come to house 2 car dealerships. The developer though does not care for his properties. The Stilts Building is occupied but there are also numerous vacancies particualary because the developer has made no top to bottom renovations which caused the office space to go from Class A to Class B office space. The developer is also taking his sweet time converting the Bond Hotel into a Homewood Suites by Hilton and the city has now taken action and is working to get the developers tax breaks and exemptions revoked.

[MadVlad]

The Colt Building

The Lady Fenwick on the CT River

Travelers Tower / the Gold Building from Bushnell Park

[DigitalSky]

mmm pretty. I wanna go to Hartford someday

[Bartholomew]

Great post. Hartford is my hometown. Here are a few more:

Connecticut State Capitol Building:

Downtown:

Connecticut Governor's Mansion:

Colt Firearms Building:

Bushnell Auditorium (site of Clinton/Dole Presidential Debates 1996):

Hartford Aerial:

Hartford Skyline on a winter day:

Hartford Skyline from Colt Park:

Connecticut River winding past Downtown Hartford and Founders Plaza in East Hartford:

Old State House:

Snowy Hartford:

Hartford Aerial circa 1987 taken from above Westfarms Mall, 6 miles southwest of Downtown:

[ZachariahDaMan]

Great pictures, thanks for posting them.

[ctman987]

Its really amazing to look at those skyline/ aerial pictures of the city and see how much the skyline has changed with the addition of the convention center, marriott hotel and hartford 21 tower.

[NCB]

Great Pictures

The whole city looks very nice, I would like to visit Hartford one day...

[Rural King]

Very nice pics. Hartford looks like it has a very nice downtown IMO.

[ctman987]

Hartford's downtown has always thrived but parts of downtown did take some hits as Hartford's suburbs expanded dramatically in the 1950's and 1960's. Many large departments stores like G. Fox, Sage Allen and Korvettes closed but now the G. Fox building is a college, the Sage Allen building is becoming townhouses and the former home to Korvettes is becoming office space. Downtown has no shortage of Class A office space which is very good.

I will make note that the past two weekends in Hartford have been amazing. Last week there were 16,000 women in the city for a Women of Faith Convention and down on Market Street Cirque du Soleil was doing shows under the huge tent they made.

This past weeekend on Friday Bruce Springstein was performing to a sold out crowd at the Hartford Civic Center, there was a Cirque du Coleil show going on Friday and Saturday, there was a block party on Pratt Street downtown, there were 60,000 people attending a UCONN vs Syracuse football game at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, there were 4,000 math teachers at the convention center for a convention and Saturday was the Hartford Marathon which brought close to 8000 runners alone to the 26 mile run from more then 15 differant countries.

[naomigallery]

Very nice photos.

Would you happen to have a photo of 991-993 Wethersfield Ave. in Hartford, CT? That house used to belong to my great-grandparents James and Nina Courtney. They purchased it in 1937. I live in Arizona and I've never been to your area. I'm currently doing genealogical research on my family and trying to collect pertinent photos.

If you have one, I'd appreciate seeing it. Thanks- Naomi

[SOCOM]

Very nice photos.

Would you happen to have a photo of 991-993 Wethersfield Ave. in Hartford, CT? That house used to belong to my great-grandparents James and Nina Courtney. They purchased it in 1937. I live in Arizona and I've never been to your area. I'm currently doing genealogical research on my family and trying to collect pertinent photos.

If you have one, I'd appreciate seeing it. Thanks- Naomi

I'm originally from Hartford and am planning a trip up there next weekend (May 13-15). I'll be bringing my camera along so I'll do my best to snap a pic of 991-993 Wethersfield Ave and post it here soon after.

[ctman987]

Very nice photos.

Would you happen to have a photo of 991-993 Wethersfield Ave. in Hartford, CT? That house used to belong to my great-grandparents James and Nina Courtney. They purchased it in 1937. I live in Arizona and I've never been to your area. I'm currently doing genealogical research on my family and trying to collect pertinent photos.

If you have one, I'd appreciate seeing it. Thanks- Naomi

I live just outside the city in Wethersfield and go into the city every day for school. I will also try to head over there and snap a photo. Im not sure exactly of that house but I do know 901 Wethersfield ave is the home of Costa Del Sol- a popular south end restaurant which is kind of close to the wethersfield line.

[naomigallery]

Hey, that would be super!

I can email a photo of the house taken in 1937 to anyone who wants a stab at finding and photographing it for me, might help in identifying the house easier. I'm not sure how to post it here, but I'll email it to you.

Thanks - Naomi

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