The Downtown North Historic District is a

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

. It is a predominantly residential area located around Main Street and High Street north of

I-84 Interstate 84 may refer to: * Interstate 84 (Oregon–Utah), passing through Idaho, formerly known as Interstate 80N * Interstate 84 (Pennsylvania–Massachusetts) Interstate 84 (I-84) is an Interstate Highway in the Northeaster ...

and south of the

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

railroad tracks. Its apartment blocks, houses, schools and churches, built up mainly in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as part of an expansion of the city's urban core. It includes the

Keney Tower Keney Tower is a memorial tower located in a small public park at Main and Ely Streets north of downtown Hartford, Connecticut. Built in 1898 as a memorial to family members by the locally prominent Keney family, it is a distinctive local example ...

. The area was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 2004.

Description and history

Hartford's Downtown North Historic District is a roughly butterfly-shaped area, bounded on north by the Amtrak railroad tracks and centered on the junction of Albany Avenue with Main, High, Ely, and Ann Uccello Streets. The wings of the butterfly are located on either side of this junction, the left wing bounded on the south by Interstate 84 and Walnut Street, and the right wing bounded on the south by Winthrop Street. The eastern wing is dominated in size by the grounds of the former Barnard School, built in 1927 and now home to the Capital Preparatory Magnet School, with the Keney Tower park just to its north. The tower, a freestanding Gothic Revival structure designed by

Charles C. Haight Charles Coolidge Haight (March 17, 1841 – February 9, 1917) was an American architect who practiced in New York City. He designed most of the buildings at Columbia College's now-demolished old campus on Madison Avenue, and designed numerou ...

and built in 1898, is a memorial to the locally prominent Keney family, whose home and business were here. North of the tower is the Sacred Heart Church, a brick Gothic Revival church built in 1892. Across Main Street from the school are a row of Italianate duplex residences, built in the 1890s. At the triangular junction between Ann Uccello and High Streets is a "Flatiron" building, in height, built in 1896 to a design by Frederick Comstock. South of that building on Ann Uccello Street are a series of residential buildings, some single-family and some multiunit. The most elaborate is the Arthur G. Pomeroy House, a fine Queen Anne Victorian built in 1882. On the west side of High Street stands the

Isham-Terry House The Isham-Terry House is a historic house museum at 211 High Street in Hartford, Connecticut. Built around 1854, from 1896 it was home to members of the Isham family, who restored it in the early 20th century. The family donated the property to ...

, a c. 1854 Italianate villa that is now a

historic house museum A historic house museum is a house of historic significance that has been transformed into a museum. Historic furnishings may be displayed in a way that reflects their original placement and usage in a home. Historic house museums are held to a ...

, and the Classical Revival Second North District School, built in 1891 and now housing the city's board of education. The area just to its south was a residential area when the district was listed in 2004, but that has been razed and is now occupied by the city's police headquarters.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Historic districts in Hartford County, Connecticut Georgian architecture in Connecticut Victorian architecture in Connecticut Italianate architecture in Connecticut Queen Anne architecture in Connecticut National Register of Historic Places in Hartford, Connecticut Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut

Description and history

See also

References