The Alliance will announce on Saturday a list of the Ten Most Endangered Buildings in Hartford. Nothing new in preservation activities however timely for us as we exceed our reach on behalf of what matters: saving our heritage. A simple concept to draw attention to the buildings and landscapes that our Architectural Building Committee feels might be at risk from blight, neglect, an uncertain future or “might be in the way”.
I’ve been asked what the process was to create such a list. My response – it began with wine. Folks were gathered to survey and consider places around the City which might be given an endangered status. It took on an aspect of an auction with committee members vying for their favorite building in distress. A geographic review was accomplished with far greater than ten buildings at risk listed (there is always next year……). All in good fun until the list had to be reduced to ten, and then the knives came out along with opinions! Wait, preservationists are genteel tea-sippers, right? When it comes to the passion of saving endangered buildings the gloves are off!
Included on this inaugural list will be buildings which you will recognize and know instantly. There will be a couple surprises because you are probably be familiar with them but haven’t really taken notice. Our objective is to shine the spotlight on historic properties which might disappear for lack of awareness. And so, the votes have been tallied and the awards go to…………. You will have to link into our website www.hartfordpreservation.org on Saturday to learn which buildings win the dubious distinction of being most endangered. Or better yet, join our e-mailing list and have the Top Ten delivered to right to your inbox.
Many thanks to Hartford Prints for partnering with us for our HARTBomb event and creating the event graphic.