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| The Keney Memorial Clock Tower, near the corner of Main Street and Albany Avenue. For information on its history, see this previous question. Clicking on the tower will take you to more great photos of Hartford by Karen O'Maxfield. | |
Hartford History
Weekly Trivia Question
This page is dedicated to Hartford native Patricia Reardon Monahan (1950-2000.)
Previous question
Q: "Hers was the first major retail store to hire blacks in meaningful jobs." Who does that describe?
A: Beatrice Fox Auerbach, president of G. Fox & Co. The sentence comes from her page on the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame site, at www.cwhf.org.
This week's question
Q: In the mid-1860s, two buildings known as the Widows' Homes arose in Hartford. The funding came from the estate of Lawson Ives, a member of the now-demolished Pearl Street Congregational Church. His will had provided for the construction of buildings "for charitable uses and purposes." These buildings still stand. Where are they?
Q: What Catholic church, still standing, was built around a schoolhouse in 1865?
A: St. Peter's Church on Main Street, near South Green. (Source: "Postcard History Series: Victorian Hartford," by Tomas J. Nenortas.)
Q: Hartford is known for the old-style "perfect six" apartment buildings that dot its neighborhoods. What is a "perfect six"?
A: It's a three-story brick building that contains six apartments, with two on each floor, side by side. There's a central entrance flanked by bay fronts and, usually, a heavy classical roof cornice. The type became especially common in the Frog Hollow section. (Source: "Structures and Styles: Guided Tours of Hartford Architecture," by Gregory E. Andrews and David F. Ransom.)
Q: Here's one to mark Presidents Day (and that's a hint): What happened on October 14, 1975, to put Hartford in the national news, though not in a complimentary light?
A: A limousine whisking President Gerald Ford away from a fundraiser at the recently opened Civic Center was broadsided at the intersection of Talcott and Market streets by a 19-year-old driving a 1968 Buick. According to news reports, city and state police escorts had failed to close off the intersection for the presidential motorcade. Thanks to Bill Waters for the question and the answer.
Q: Who was the first governor to reside in the current governor's mansion, at 990 Prospect Avenue in Hartford?
A: Raymond E. Baldwin, 1939-1941. This is one of many great trivia questions included in Facts About Connecticut Governors, a new page of the Connecticut State Library site.
Q: Where did the Nelton Court housing project get its name?
A: "Nelton" comes from combining the names of two streets adjacent to the project: Nelson and Acton. (Source: "History of Hartford Streets," by F. Perry Close)
Q: What downtown Hartford hotel began life in 1964 as the Hotel America?
A: The Clarion, on Constitution Plaza. It also has operated as the Sonesta Hotel and the Summit Hotel.
Q: What event made Hartford the focal point of the nation on October 6, 1996?
A: The presidential debate between incumbent Bill Clinton and Senator Bob Dole. It was held at The Bushnell.
Q: For whom is the Betances School named?
A: Ramon Emeterio Betances, leader of the 1868 revolt against Spanish rule in Puerto Rico. The school was named the Kinsella School until 1985, when the Puerto Rican Political Action Committee (PRPAC) convinced the Board of Education to rename it for Betances. (Source: "Identity & Power: Puerto Rican Politics and the Challenge of Ethnicity," by Jose E. Cruz.)
Q: The Main Twain House and Museum recently won a federal grant to renovate the Charles Boardman Smith House, which is located on Forest Street, across the street from the Twain house. (See the news blog for details.) Who was Charles Boardman Smith?
A: He was a principal in Smith, Worthington & Company, a saddlery manufacturing firm that was founded in 1794 and remains in business today on Homestead Avenue. Visit the company's website at smithworthington.com (Source: "Structures & Styles: Guided Tours of Hartford Architecture," by Gregory E. Andrews and David F. Ransom.)
Q: A close look at the statue of Lafeyette on horseback at the intersection of Washington Street and Capitol Avenue reveals a tortoise just behind the left hind hoof of the general's horse. Why is it there?
A: The artist, Paul Bartlett, put it there to express his displeasure with how long it took for officials to place his statue on its pedestal. The statue, dedicated on November 11, 1932, is a copy of one that stands at the Louvre in Paris. (Source: "Hartford: Yesterday & Today," by Robert H. Arnold)
Q: A large Veterans Memorial, honoring the 425 Hartford servicemen killed in World War II, used to stand on the east lawn of the Old State House, facing the river. What happened to it?
A: "In the winter of 1975, after years of neglect and a heavy snowstorm, it collapsed and was not replaced," Wilson H. Faude writes in his book, "Images of America: Hartford." The book contains two wonderful pictures of the monument, taken in the 1950s. At that point, it was very stately.
Q: Colt Park once had a lake. Whereabouts inside the park was it located, and why is it no longer there?
A: Hartford native Bill Waters, who supplied the question, writes: "The lake in Colt Park was just inside the Wethersfield Avenue entrance, and as I remember it, a drowning sometime in the early 1950s contributed to the filling in of the lake." Thanks to Mr. Waters for supplying the question and answer as well as a circa-1910 postcard of the pond.
Q: In March 1932, the city turned off of every third streetlamp, 19 of the 80 traffic signals, and all the floodlighting at Brainard Field. What prompted this?
A: The Great Depression. As businesses and residents struggled to pay their bills, so did the city. Revenue dried up, and tax increases were out of the question, so the city took extraordinary steps to curb expenses. (Source: "Hartford: An Illustrated History of Connecticut's Capital," by Glenn Weaver.)
Q: Connecticut Natural Gas moved to its current quarters on Columbus Boulevard in 1980. Where was its previous home?
A: CNG, then known as the Hartford City Gas Light Company, moved from 565-67 Main Street to 233 Pearl Street in 1928 and remained there for the next five decades. (Source: "Hartford: An Illustrated History of Connecticut's Capital," by Glenn Weaver.)
More questions
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Weeks 73-78
Weeks 67-72,
Weeks 61-66,
Weeks 55-60,
Weeks 49-54