By Doug Maine
Connecticut Life, March 2005

When the organizers of the Hartford Preservation Alliance first came together around 1998, the wrecking ball was seen as the salvation of city neighborhoods plagued by vacant, deteriorating buildings. The historic or architectural value of those empty structures was less important than stemming the spread of blight.

By then the Hartford Architecture Conservancy, the city's advocate for preservation since the 1970s, had gone bankrupt. And a "back to the city" movement that spurred the renovation of areas such as Congress Street and Clemens Place in the '70s and early '80s had petered out, felled by a collapse in real estate values and harsh urban realities.

Faced with this void, "a group of us got together and said that Hartford's architecture is too important not to have an advocate," recalled Lee Kuckro, an attorney and preservationist active in Old Wethersfield, where he lives.

But when the HPA approached the city with a list of 15 buildings particularly worthy of preservation, out of some 200 slated to be razed, officials saw the new group as obstructionist. They put the 15 at the top of the demolition list, said Matt Blood, a city resident and former HPA president, and used city funds to avoid state and federal preservation requirements.

"We really came in too late, and we were coming in kind of defensively," said Rafie Podolsky, an attorney, founding member and secretary of the HPA board. "Unfortunately, the city was not really taking our advice and didn't really seek it."

Times have again changed, and the city is now working towards adopting a preservation ordinance with input from HPA members. Symbolic of the new thinking was the relocation last July of an 1890 Victorian brick building from Sigourney Street, where it stood in the way of additional parking for Aetna, to a neighborhood of similar homes on Ashley Street.

The HPA now has about 300 members and has worked to foster appreciation of the city's architectural heritage, particularly in residential neighborhoods and among the owners of historic homes, who aren't necessarily preservationists.

"People think demolition when they lack hope," Mr. Podolsky said. They are less skeptical about preservation when they can see the possibility of a building or neighborhood being brought back to health. "I think if the city were doing it now, they would have some second thoughts," he said.

Others such as Frog Hollow neighborhood homeowner Edie Lacey, say the city saved what it could and did not take the decisions to demolish buildings lightly. "There was no way to remediate many of these properties," she said, and many did not meet modern needs.

In any case, the current mood in the city is optimistic. Dr. Bob Painter, a member of the city council for the past three years, said, "there's never been so many people with education, financial skills... who know the financial markets, who know the financial game, who have little projects going on all over the city."

Many people are interested in living downtown and elsewhere in the city, and residents have been empowered through the creation of neighborhood revitalization zones (NRZs), he said. In addition, Mayor Eddie Perez has made increasing home ownership a city priority.

At the same time, Councilor Painter said there is increasing awareness that that Hartford has an abundance of noteworthy buildings, particularly from the late-19th century, when it was one of the richest cities in the country.

History as a resource

For members of the HPA, the emphasis is not simply on saving individual buildings. "Our mission is to preserve and protect the architectural resources of the city of Hartford while fostering an environment that that fosters economic development," Mr. Blood said.
Consequently, the organization has worked with the city, property owners, neighborhood activists and major institutions.

Councilor Painter praised the HPA's judiciousness and restraint. Rather than getting up in arms about every building, he said the group is selective and a voice of reason. "So often, advocacy groups can be strident and unreasonable," he said.
Historic preservation has long been a tough sell in Hartford, especially downtown. When times have been good, city fathers have dreamed that the next shiny mega-development would be the one to revive the city center.

Noteworthy buildings have been razed to make room for promised skyscrapers that never materialized, leaving empty lots to be paved over for parking.

Attitudes may be changing, Mr. Podolsky said, with efforts such as the conversion of the art deco former SNET building into apartments and planned housing in the former Sage-Allen department store, among others. Still, he said, "downtown has been decimated."
Mr. Blood said, "You can't really lament what's been lost. You're not going to build replicas of what was there.... It's an opportunity for new development to take place of the same quality."

A moving experience

In the case of the home moved to Ashley Street, Mr. Podolsky said the HPA responded when the building turned up on the city's demolition list and helped bring together Aetna with the Asylum Hill NRZ. He credited the Northside Institutions Neighborhood Alliance (NINA) and its executive director Ken Johnson with making the move happen.

Because all of the historic buildings around it on Sigourney Street had long been demolished, Mr. Podolsky said the new location is actually more appropriate.

In fact, Mr. Kuckro said, "it looks like it's always been there... It's in a streetscape of similar houses."
It's now waiting to be turned into a single-family home as part of a larger NINA project to revitalize the Ashley/Sargeant Street area.

Attention to the larger neighborhood environment, as well as individual buildings, is now part of preservationists' thinking. The relocated building is handsome and well constructed, but Mr. Podolsky said, "it wasn't the Old State House or the Mark Twain House."

"These were neighborhoods that were filled with these buildings," he said. "It's the fact that you've got a row of them together - that's what makes them historic... They were significant because they were part of the fabric of the neighborhood."

A preservation ordinance

The city now is developing a historic preservation ordinance that would strengthen protections for buildings in National and State Register historic districts, Mr. Blood said.

Already protected are buildings in local historic districts, but those encompass only 70 buildings, including the Old State House and the Columbia Street and Grandview Terrace neighborhoods.

Mr. Podolsky serves on the task force responsible for drafting an ordinance. A version of the ordinance was presented to the council last year, but Mayor Perez wanted changes, which are being worked on.

According to Councilor Painter, the mayor was concerned about not imposing so many restrictions that residents would not be able to afford to improve their property.

The proposed rules would require approval for demolition or building permits for new construction or alterations to the exterior of any building in a historic district if the changes would be visible from the street, Mr. Podolsky said. Work such as painting, which does not now require a city permit, would not be covered. continued

"People have been very, very careful that it's being done in a way that doesn't discourage improvements... A lot of the older neighborhoods are poorer neighborhoods," Mr. Podolsky said. Historic buildings "really are tremendous assets to the people that live in them, if people see them that way."

The idea is not to have people start moving into the neighborhoods from the suburbs, pricing out current residents, he said. "This is not a gentrification issue. This is really an effort to make housing better for people that live there."

Involving residents

Where there are historic buildings but no historic districts, the HPA has worked to enlarge existing districts or create new ones. In 2003, the borders of the Frog Hollow Historic District were extended south from Jefferson Street to Allen Place.

Ms. Lacey, who has a turn-of-the-century home in the area, said, "the first reaction when you hear historic is 'uh-oh, they're going to tell me what I can't do with my house.'" But she said her own experience was positive.

Active in the Frog Hollow NRZ, she said the HPA approached the residents' group and received a favorable response. The process, which the HPA handled, took two years and much historical research to complete.

It culminated when the alliance put National Register plaques on 10 of the best buildings in the area, including her home, and held a ceremony that was attended by the mayor and other officials.

"It made people pretty proud that they had stuck in and stayed in the neighborhood." Though homeowners and preservationists might seem to be at odds, she said, "we're really on the same team in working to make Hartford better."

What was nice, Mr. Podolsky said, was that by and large the owners of those properties were not "preservationists" and may not have previously recognized the historic significance of their properties.

"We've started to regain in the city a recognition of the importance of our historic architecture... whereas a dozen years ago we saw it as a hindrance," he said.

The North Downtown Historic District was established through HPA's efforts. North of I-84, it extends along Main Street to Albany Avenue and includes Ann and High streets. One of its jewels is the Keeney Tower on Main Street. Also unique but in rough shape is a boarded-up flatiron building located where Ann and High streets intersect with Main.

According to Mr. Blood, HPA involvement began with concern for the vacant former Second North District School on High Street. Constructed around 1891, its last tenant was the city's board of education.

The city, which hopes to build a new public safety complex in the area, had planned to level the building. But officials have learned that the old school is of such solid construction that tearing it down and building something new would cost more than renovating and were considering its potential reuse, Mr. Blood said. Currently, the project has stalled because a $40 million city bond issue for the project is no longer considered adequate.

Endangered or on the brink

The future was not so promising for the oldest surviving structure in the city, located at 1805 Broad St., built in 1750, which may be a memory by the time this is published. It stood in the way of an open-air skating rink planned by Trinity College, Mr. Blood said.
"It's kind of a shell of its former self," having lost its clapboard siding and center chimney over the years, the latter when the building was moved to its current location around 1910, he said.

"In the end, the only thing worth saving is the timber frame," Mr. Blood said. "We have not as of yet found a developer to take the building on," who would have to dismantle and store it at an estimated cost of $50,000.

"Given the fact that we don't have a site to move it to, it's not looking good at this point," he said. The city is supporting the college's plan because it is expected to benefit the neighborhood.

"Our hope is not to derail the project or stop the project from going forward," Mr. Blood. "It's just to get the building saved."

Another at-risk building is at 2016 Main St. Originally a parish house for the neighboring Faith Congregational Church, it more recently was home to the L.R. Lewis Funeral Home. In an area of the city's North End where a concentration of churches means parking is in short supply on Sunday mornings, "the church is planning on taking the building down for parking," he said.
"It's another tough preservation case where you have a house that was converted into a commercial structure." Though a 1950s-style storefront detracts from its historic character, he said the building retains many of its historic features.

HPA members have also been working with a developer seeking to construct 92 condominium units in the former Capewell Horse Nail Company factory on Charter Oak Avenue, just south of Downtown. The goal is to enable the developer to access historic homeowner tax credits that are now available to owners who rehabilitate homes with up to four units. Legislation to that effect has been introduced in the state legislature, Mr. Blood said.

Unlike other housing planned for the city center, which will be primarily for renters, he said the Capewell project is significant because it will offer ownership opportunities.

Outreach efforts

To get people interested their own neighborhoods' uniqueness, the HPA has offered architectural walking tours in some city neighborhoods. The group also publishes a newsletter three times a year.

In the spring, the HPA will hold its fifth annual Jeffrey S. Czopor Preservation Week Awards, recognizing individuals and organizations that have contributed to historic and architectural preservation during the previous year. The awards are named for an urban planner who was one of the founders of the HPA.

The 2004 honorees ranged from developer David Nyberg and 55 Trumbull Street Associates for the SNET building conversion, a high-profile downtown project, to less heralded efforts such as the rehabilitation of an abandoned Victorian home on Wethersfield Avenue by owner Isidro Solis.
"Have we done anything? No," Mr. Podolsky said. "But I think we've contributed to an atmosphere in which it's a good thing to do this."

The group hopes to have a greater impact in the near future. After receiving two major grants, the HPA will be soon be hiring its first paid staff member, an executive director, and opening an office, in order to reduce the burden on its board members and volunteers, Mr. Blood said.

Ironically, if the city continues on the upswing, the promise of new development may again threaten historic buildings.

"The oldest neighborhoods in the city are the ones that have the oldest buildings in them and the ones that often face the most development pressure," Mr. Kuckro said.

However, Mr. Podolsky said many developers have learned to do the math.

"The old conventional wisdom used to be that demolitions are cheaper... but then what you have is an empty lot," he said. "Much of the time, the rehab is cheaper than the combination of demolition and the construction of a new building."

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