Early nineteenth-century illustrations of Hartford, Connecticut, show
church steeples towering over the Victorian homes and brownstone facades
of businesses around them. The modern skyline of the town has lost many
of these elegant steeples and their quaint and smaller neighbors. Banks
have yielded to newer banks, and organizations like the YMCA are now
parking lots. In the 1960s, Constitution Plaza replaced an entire
neighborhood on Hartford's east side. The city has evolved in the name
of progress, allowing treasured buildings to pass into history. Those
buildings that survive have been repurposed--the Old State House, built
in 1796, is one of the oldest and has found new life as a museum. Yet
the memory of these bygone landmarks and scenes has not been lost.
Historian Daniel Sterner recalls the lost face of downtown and preserves
the historic landmarks that still remain with this nostalgic exploration
of Hartford's structural evolution.