The Phoenix Companies, Inc. for the placement of its home office on the National Register of Historic Places.
First and Last Café for the renovation of and reuse of The White Motor Co. building on Maple Avenue.
Christian Activities Council for its architecturally-sensitive construction of two new houses on Deerfield Avenue.
Mi Casa Family Service and Educational Center, Inc. for rehabilitation of the Solomon Building.
Steven Bielitz and William Gould for the dismantling and preservation of 1805 Broad Street, the oldest building in Hartford.
2074-1429 Park Street LLC for the renovation and reuse of the Jacobs Manufacturing Co. building at 2074 Park Street.
Albert Lennox and the Board of the Spring Grove Cemetery Association for the renewal of the Spring Grove Cemetery.
Mutual Housing Association of Greater Hartford for the rehabilitation of 95 Niles Street.
The Ginsburg Development Companies for the restoration of the Goodwin Mansion.
R. J. Luke Williams for his leadership of the Hartford Public High School History Project.
Homes for America Holdings for the renovation and reuse of the Sawtooth Building in the Colt Industrial Complex.
Northside Institutions Neighborhood Alliance for the relocation of 47 Sigourney Street to 21 Ashley Street.
In the early 1960s, the Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Co., which had been born in Hartford in 1851, made the decision to stay in Hartford. The result was the now-famous "Boat Building," designed by New York architect Max Abromovitz and widely considered to be an exceptional example of the Modernist style in architecture. Forty years later, with its home office building needing major modernization, Phoenix was faced with a similar decision; and again it chose to stay. As part of a $25 million upgrade, it took the initiative and successfully nominated the building for the National Register of Historic Places, thereby making it eligible for federal historic tax credits. The two-sided design of the structure -- it is believed to be the world's first two-sided building -- and its open plaza deck gives it, in the words of one author, "the illusion of an ephemeral green ship floating through space." Phoenix's initiative in seeking National Register status for this spectacular building should be viewed as a model which other Hartford businesses can follow. Back to 2005 Awards Roster
The DePasquale family, owners of the well-known First and Last Tavern on Maple Avenue, bought the vacant 22,000 square foot former truck dealership across the street and converted it into a retail café, a wholesale and retail bakery, and a food commissary which serves as the production center for the family's three First and Last restaurants. The building was constructed in 1927 for The White Motor Co., whose name is still visible on the building's tall chimney. In the early 1950s, the site was taken over by the Baumert Moran Sales Co., which sold trucks. Its conversion to retail and commercial purposes represents an especially creative use of this sturdy building and is a significant contribution to the economic growth of the South End. Back to 2005 Awards Roster
Deerfield Avenue is a one-block street in Upper Albany that runs between Albany Avenue and Greenfield Street, just south of Keney Park. It was developed between 1900 and 1904 by builders Michael and Thomas Nevels, who constructed 40 spacious Queen Anne style houses. By the 1990s, however, much of the block had fallen into decay. In 2001, the Christian Activities Council, which is based in Upper Albany, adopted a long-term "Upper Albany Revitalization Initiative" to work with residents to revitalize a 15-block area within Upper Albany. Deerfield Avenue, the Initiative's first project, was designed to promote home ownership. Four vacant houses have been rehabilitated, architecturally compatible in-fill housing has been built on two of the three vacant lots, and residents of the block have made improvements of their own to their properties and to the streetscape as a whole. The block has been designated a "Pride Block" by the city, and the Neighborhoods of Hartford, Inc., has provided assistance with community organization and supportive funding. When the Deerfield Avenue project is completed with the construction of one more house and the replacement of the deer at the corner of Albany Avenue, the Christian Activities Council will move on to similar projects on Irving and Vine Streets. Back to 2005 Awards Roster
The Mi Casa Family Service and Educational Center will soon be moving into the rehabilitated Art Deco building at 590-596 Park Street in Frog Hollow, known as the Solomon Building. The project included restoration of the building's exterior limestone, a full interior restoration including a pressed tin ceiling on the first floor, and a new first-floor store front. Built in 1930, the building is one of the few examples of Art Deco architecture in Hartford. It originally housed an F.W. Woolworth's department store on the first floor and a bowling alley, known as Park Recreation, on the second and third floors. William Solomon, for whom the building is named, owned both the bowling alley and Solomon's Hardware at 795 Park Street. The critical location of the building near the corner of Park and Broad Streets in the heart of Frog Hollow makes it an especially important anchor building for the neighborhood. Back to 2005 Awards Roster
Last summer the Hartford Preservation Alliance learned that Trinity College was about to demolish a 1740 house on Broad Street south of New Britain Avenue to make way for its sports complex. The building – almost surely the oldest then-standing building in Hartford – had been substantially altered over the centuries; but an inspection of the attic revealed its original hand-hewn timbering and showed the importance of preserving it. When neither funds nor a site could be found to move the building, two people with decades of experience in saving 17th and 18th century buildings stepped forward. They are Bill Gould of Bill Gould Architectural Preservation in Pomfret and Steve Bielitz of The Glastonbury Restoration Co. Together, with help from a variety of volunteers, they took the building apart nail-by-nail and board-by-board and have now placed it in storage. They also received critical support from Maria DeMarco of DeMarco, Murphy & Miles in Hartford, who as manager of the project for Trinity, helped make the arrangements which made completion of the project possible. Back to 2005 Awards Roster
The building at 2074 Park Street is a wonderful example of the reuse of a historic factory building for commercial and retail purposes. Carlos Mouta, the principal owner, has become a leader in the redevelopment of Parkville's factory buildings, having won a Preservation Award last year for his rehabilitation of another Parkville industrial building. Built between 1915 and 1917, the massive 50,000 square foot building at 2074 Park Street was long occupied by the Jacobs Manufacturing Co., manufacturer of what has been described as "the world-famous three-jaw Jacobs Drill Chuck." In the 1940s and 1950s, the Han-Dee Spring & Manufacturing Co. became the primary occupant, and the building continued mainly as a manufacturing center through the 1980s. The current rehabilitation project has transformed the first floor of the building, with O Porto's, a new Portugeuse restaurant, having opened facing Park Street More significant, Mr. Mouta has changed the west side of the building, once a solid brick wall, by creating doors, windows, and a commercial facade, thereby allowing the establishment of storefronts on that side of the building. These now include a Thai grocery store, a shower door company, and a soon-to-open restaurant, Tinker's, that is moving into the city from West Hartford. Back to 2005 Awards Roster
The 35-acre Spring Grove Cemetery, off of Main Street in North Hartford, was founded in 1845. Privately owned from the outset, its design reflects the fashion in mid-19th century America for parklike burying grounds with Gothic funerary art. During the Victorian period, members of many of Hartford's most distinguished families were buried there, including Elizabeth Pond, for whom Elizabeth Park is named, and her husband Charles; Laurent Clerc, founder of what is now the American School for the Deaf; and the landscape painter Frederic Edwin Church. Such famous Hartford names as Goodwin, Colt, Batterson and Seymour appear on tombstones in the cemetery. By the 1990s, however, the cemetery had fallen into disrepair, with overgrown weeds, fallen tree limbs and graffiti. Albert Lennox was appointed manager in the summer of 2004 and, with the support of an active board of directors, has led the clean-up of this historic cemetery. Back to 2005 Awards Roster
Mutual housing is a type of housing, similar to a cooperative, in which the building is owned by an association, of which the residents are the members. Since the late 1980s, the Mutual Housing Association of Greater Hartford has been active in converting vacant and deteriorated buildings in Hartford into affordable housing. Its best known work is the restoration of the many Perfect Sixes which border the eastern edge of Pope Park in Frog Hollow. More recently, it acquired the building at 95 Niles Street in Asylum Hill for its offices and did a major rehabilitation of the building. The 5,100 square foot Queen Anne-style structure, built in 1895, was in the 1940s and 1950s the home of Ward Devanny, director of the Hartford School of Music. It was converted to offices about 30 years ago. The rehabilitation took advantage of the exceptional existing features of the building, which include a sweeping staircase, three fireplaces and ornate windows and trim. Back to 2005 Awards Roster
In January 1997, after a disastrous fire, the Hartford Courant reported, "The historic Goodwin mansion in Hartford's West End will be torn down after it was gutted by a suspicious fire late Friday night." The 22-room, 15,000 square foot mansion had been built in 1903 for Walter L. Goodwin, a banker and part of Hartford's famous Goodwin family. Many Hartford residents resisted demolition, however, and the city itself soon had second thoughts. The city formed a task force to find a developer and, in conjunction with the task force, insisted that any approved development plan include restoration of the mansion. The refusal to give up on the mansion produced the desired result, with Ginsburg Development reconstructing the mansion as part of the redevelopment of the entire 17-acre Goodwin estate. The rehabilitation, which relied on old photographs to replicate many features of the building, has converted the mansion into seven condominium units plus community facilities. In addition, 20 new buildings containing 56 condominiums were built along the edges of the estate. Back to 2005 Awards Roster
Luke Williams is the initiator and director of the Hartford Public High School History Project. The Project, which began in 1995, has preserved and catalogued the high school's archival material and has become a vehicle for involving students in helping to maintain and expand the history of the school. Efforts have been made to expand the collection through contact with alumni, and Mr. Williams has spoken at more than 30 class reunions. Hartford Public High School is the second oldest secondary school in the United States, tracing its ancestry to the creation of the Hartford Grammar School in 1638. For 80 years, its spectacular Gothic building on Hopkins Street in Asylum Hill was a Hartford landmark. That building was, unfortunately, demolished in 1963 for the construction of I-84 and was replaced with a modern building on Forest Street that can at best be termed "mundane" and that is currently undergoing renovation because it has already outlived its useful life. Back to 2005 Awards Roster
The so-called "Sawtooth" Building on Huyshope Avenue in the Colt Industrial Complex gets its name from its jagged glass ceiling, which is designed so as to maximize the amount of natural light entering from above. It contains 1,500 panes of glass, which cost about $1.2 million to reconstruct. The enormous one-story building has nearly 100,000 square feet of space and is one of the largest sawtooth buildings in the United States. Built by the Colt Fire Arms Manufacturing Company during World War I, for decades it was used for firearms production and related manufacturing work. Vacated by Colt in the 1990s, it sat empty for more than ten years until Homes for America Holdings bought and renovated it. Now integrated into the Colt Gateway Project, the building is occupied by Insurity, an insurance services company, which has brought 300 jobs into the building and will add another 150 when the structure is fully occupied. Back to 2005 Awards Roster
When Aetna proposed to demolish the 1890 brick Victorian building at 47 Sigourney Street, it could have been a loss for the Asylum Hill neighborhood. Instead it turned into an opportunity to bring that community together. Alerted by the public notice provisions of the City's 90-day demolition waiting period, the Hartford Preservation Alliance raised an initial objection to demolition. The Asylum Hill NRZ joined in, and Aetna offered to cooperate with the relocation of the building. The newly-organized Northside Institutions Neighborhood Alliance, known as NINA (of which Aetna was a member) folded the relocation and rehabilitation of the building into its first six-building home ownership revitalization project in Asylum Hill and took over responsibility for finding funding and organizing the move of the building. And, in a burst of true creativity, NINA celebrated its success with a party on the 22nd floor of The Hartford insurance building, from which guests could see the slow movement of 47 Sigourney St. down Farmington Avenue. Before relocation, the building stood alone in the middle of a parking lot, the last Victorian on its block. Now relocated to 21 Ashley Street, it is ready to begin a new life where it fits comfortably into a turn-of-the-century streetscape. Back to 2005 Awards Roster
Hartford Preservation Alliance Awards
Tomas J. Nenortas, the newly-elected president of the HPA board of directors, recently completed his first book, Victorian Hartford, a book of postcards and other photographs of Hartford at the turn of the century. The 128-page book is part of Arcadia Publishing's Postcard History Series and contains turn-of-the-century pictures drawn largely from postcards and other photographic images of the time. Nenortas is an avid collector, a connoisseur of history, architecture, and geneology, and an ardent proponent of historic preservation.
Matthew Blood served as president of the HPA board of directors 2000 to 2005. A resident of Frog Hollow, Blood's extensive knowledge of buildings and history. along with his enthusiasm for, and extraordinary commitment to, urban revitalization has greatly helped make the Hartford Preservation Alliance a significant voice in Hartford. He has involved himself directly in HPA 's efforts to preserve numerous buildings, including the 1740 house at 1805 Broad Street and the former Hartford Board of Education Building on High Street. He has also led highly-regarded walking tours of the Frog Hollow, Asylum Hill and Downtown North neighborhoods. Back to 2005 Awards Roster
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