HPA has invited a group of partners, patrons and friends to be guest bloggers during Preservation Month. We have asked them to write on various topics surrounding the theme “Why Preservation Matters in Hartford” based on the web articles Six Reasons to Save Old Buildings and What’s ‘Historic’- and Who Says? Nine Practical Reasons to Save Old Building

What were they thinking?

Years and decades after a structure is razed, the question is often asked – what were they thinking when they tore down that building? It really isn’t hard to imagine part of the thought process. Styles change and we as a culture have an insatiable hunger for the new – new shoes, new TV’s, new cars, new houses. A real-time example: how many people do you know are dying to live in a 1960’s split-level house? And it is our hunger for the latest and greatest that probably most contributes to the current average lifespan of a commercial building being only 50 years (good example: Broadcast House on Constitution Plaza).

One of the best examples I have come across of buildings destroyed that would be an asset today is Miner’s Garage. Forward thinking Samuel A. Miner became enamored with automobiles after his purchase of a steam-powered Prescott surrey. At the turn of the 20th century, Mr. Miner left his job as a bookkeeper for H. C. Judd & Root wool dealers with the hope of being able to sell three cars a year and do repair work. He soon sold 300. The enterprising Mr. Miner then convinced his former employer to build him an “automobile station” which he rented back.

The Miner Garage Co. (corner of High & Allyn Streets) ca. 1910 (postcard courtesy of the Connecticut State Library PG 800)

Billed at one time as “The Largest Garage between New York and Boston,” the castle-like building had showrooms (visible through the large plate glass windows at the corner), offices and storage lockers for customers on the first floor. An electric 10’ by 20’ elevator was used to bring cars up to the second floor for servicing, storage and – wait for it – recharging. Mr. Miner filled the need of Hartford car owners for a place to store their vehicles before the advent of individual garages and a way to recharge their electric motors.

Surface parking corner of Allyn and High Streets (photo: Assessor, City of Hartford)

Imagine if today, instead of the surface parking lot now at this location, workers and residents could still bring their cars here for servicing and recharging. Or imagine visitors arriving a block away at Union Station and walking over to rent an electric car.

What were they thinking?

Thankfully, many of the current downtown building projects involve the adaptive re-use of buildings such as the conversions of the Hotel Sonesta and the Bank of America buildings into apartments. Who knows – in another 50 years Hartford may have a need for more hotel rooms and office space. And Hartford residents in the future will be saying We’re glad they kept these buildings and not asking what were they thinking?

(Read more about Miner’s Garage in our Once Upon A Time section)

Guest blogger Mary A. Falvey is a Senior Program Associate and Webmaster for Hartford Preservation Alliance.

HPA has invited a group of partners and friends to be our guest bloggers during Preservation Month. We have asked them to write on various topics surrounding the theme “Why Preservation Matters in Hartford” based on the web articles Six Reasons to Save Old Buildings and What’s ‘Historic’- and Who Says? Nine Practical Reasons to Save Old Building. 

Before

I love old buildings! Old buildings provide connections to a simpler more gracious past. They evoke a feeling of individuality lost in today’s cookie cutter world. Historic houses help to define a community, create a sense of history and permanence, and contribute to community pride.

There are so many emotional and economic reasons to preserve old homes and structures:

Emotionally: Preservation attaches people to their community, provides a sense of place and past, encourages a connection to neighbors. Historic buildings are much more than bricks and sticks and mortar – they are our past, a physical picture of our evolution, and the soul of our collective developmental growth. The workmanship that went into building even the most modest of antique homes is already a lost art. We cannot afford to have historic amnesia – lest we forget what it’s like to have pride in our workmanship or care about how we cohesively create community. For most of us, historic buildings create an emotional bond to a unique place.

Economically: Historic buildings are often much cheaper to rehabilitate than building new. Modern construction is typically based on a premise of obsolescence, replaceable by the next generation in 25 to 30 years. Historic buildings were meant to last.  Property values are higher and remain more stable in historic districts. Preserving a building is the ultimate in recycling, eliminating the need for buying new materials, reducing landfill waste and saving energy required to manufacture, transport and assemble materials.

That said, for me it is mostly ascetics. I love the way well-crafted older homes look and make me feel: the smell and the luster of old wood, the intricacies of patterns, the nooks and niches to explore, and the thought of carvers and craftsmen leaving their marks.

After – how sad!

As a young girl, I lived in an old house. At the time I didn’t think too much about architecture or how sad it would make me feel if something happened to it, but I loved its charms and I like the fact that it had a history. Several years after my family bought a newer home a short distance away, a family bought the old house and “renovated” it. It was then that I discovered my passion for preservation.

Guest blogger Lynn Ferrari was a founding member of the Hartford Preservation Alliance She is a co-founder of Hartford History Today, moderator of the Old Hartford facebook group and President of the Coalition to Strengthen the Sheldon/Charter Oak Neighborhood (CSS/CON) NRZ.

HPA has invited a group of partners and friends to be our guest bloggers during Preservation Month. We have asked them to write on various topics surrounding the theme “Why Preservation Matters in Hartford” based on the web articles Six Reasons to Save Old Buildings and What’s ‘Historic’- and Who Says? Nine Practical Reasons to Save Old Building. 

photo: Geer’s 1926 City Directory

OLD BUILDINGS HAVE INTRINSIC VALUE
Marguerite Carnell Rodney

If you want an apartment that has unique character—not a plain vanilla box—where do you look? Most often, it’s not in a new building. By its very nature, adaptive re-use of mills and factories for housing often produces spectacular living spaces. Our firm is working on the old Capewell Horse Nail Factory, which has stood vacant for over 25 years in the Sheldon-Charter Oak neighborhood. Finally the right developer has taken on the challenge, and it will be renovated to become apartments with the distinctive industrial character of the factory building.

Photo: Crosskey Architects

The Capewell factory, which made nails for horseshoes, was an important Hartford manufacturing center from the late 19th century to 1985. Built in 1903 after a fire that destroyed an earlier building, it’s three stories high, with a tower and a roof monitor. A single-story wing on the west side served as the storehouse. While the factory has deteriorated, it was well built and the steel and concrete structure is basically sound.

The exterior will be restored and the interior character will be retained both in the public spaces and in the apartments. The floors will remain concrete, and tenants can decorate with their choice of area rugs to add warmth. The brick walls will be left exposed. The high concrete ceilings will remain, and we are selecting pendant lights, ceiling fans, and other fixtures with just the right industrial flavor.  On the third floor, loft units will be flooded with light from the roof monitor. The apartments will look and feel like part of an early 20^th century factory, with modern conveniences added for 21^st century living.

But the intrinsic value of old factories goes beyond their cool industrial aesthetic. Reusing old buildings almost always has less environmental impact than building new ones, and many old buildings have features that make them sustainable. Capewell’s roof monitor and large operable windows, for example, will supply lots of daylight and natural ventilation. The project will be certified as LEED-NC Gold, with photovoltaic panels on the main building and a green roof on the single-story wing. Energy efficiency savings will be passed along to the tenants, 30% of whom will qualify for affordable housing. When it reopens, this old building will add economic value and much-needed affordable housing to the city, while enhancing the character, sustainability, and well being of the neighborhood.

Marguerite Carnell Rodney is Director of Historic Preservation at Crosskey Architects, winner of multiple Hartford Preservation Alliance awards.

May is Historic Preservation Month nationally.  For us at HPA the timing could not be better to launch a robust discussion what preservation is to mean in Hartford.  Recently we affirmed the our new strategic plan  which will see the organization evolve into a partner dedicated to community economic development.  Our planning began with asking questions of people who care about Hartford.  Who are we, what do we do and more to the point what can we do?  Those responses have been the foundation of business plan which hopes to be relevant as the City moves forward in an exciting era growth. Our mission is simple: “Revitalize, Connect, Collaborate”. Our values: “Community Building, Sense of Place, Economic Development”.

We have asked several key people who are committed and engaged in the future of Hartford to accept an invitation to be guest bloggers for HPA.  We have challenged these leaders to expand on assigned topics taken from the blog articles Six Practical Reasons to Save Old Buildings and What’s “Historic” – And Who Says?  During this month we will post their thoughts. 

We at HPA are eager to have this opportunity to launch a part of our campaign to engage the Hartford community in a conversation of “Why Does Historic Preservation Matter”.  But we want to challenge you, our reading audience to contribute your own thoughts about historic preservation and what it can and should mean for Hartford’s future. Add your comments below and/or comment and share our Facebook posts.

Stay tuned…………………………

The homeowner of 2 Park Terrace contacted us about improvements he wants to make to his George Keller-designed row house in the Frog Hollow Historic District.  He needs to address a sagging porch which wraps around this corner property.  An aging fence of some indeterminate era protects the property from pedestrians wishing to “cut the corner” of Park Terrace and Capitol Avenue.  He wants to explore replacing the fence with a landscape solution to soften the exterior of his home.  Rounding out the wish list is new paint and to replace gutters.  A ten-year resident of Park Terrace Jeff wants to do the right thing as he improves his home.

In contacting HPA Jeff had no idea that we would leap at offering to help!  As outlined in our new strategic plan we want to offer real and relevant technical assistance.  In launching the concept of becoming an historic preservation center, HPA wants to become recognized as a resource for property owners.  In meeting with Jeff we explored his scope of projects which are confronting the house’s condition.  With the help of an architect, Valerio Giadone, we began we had a general discussion of what options might be available to repair the substructure of this substantial porch and to repair or possibly replace columns, rails or spindles of the porch. The desire by the homeowner is to accomplish the work by the fall.

Over the course of the project I will write about the its progress , decisions to be made and resources gathered to complete this signature neighborhood improvement effort.  We hope to highlight the technical assistance offered by HPA as a means to encourage citywide interest in having the preservation center become a respected and robust partner.  More to the point we want to encourage owners  of historic property owners to “do the right thing”.