The Main Street Historic District No. 2 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 encompasses a city block in the city's downtown noted for its concentration of insurance-related highrise commercial buildings constructed in the early decades of the 20th century. It is visually dominated by the

Travelers Tower Travelers Tower is a 24-story, skyscraper in downtown Hartford, Connecticut. Travelers Tower was the seventh tallest building in the world when it was constructed in 1919, and is currently the second tallest building in Hartford. Travelers Towe ...

, completed in 1919 and for many years Hartford's tallest building. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, at which time it included seven contributing buildings over a nine-acre area.

Description

The historic district is located in the heart of downtown Hartford, directly north of the Old State House. It covers an L-shaped area extending south from Atheneum Square North, bounded on the west by Main Street and the north by Central Row. It is bounded on the east by the Modern Phoenix Life Insurance Company Building, and by Grove and Prospect Streets. This area has been a business and commercial area in the city since the late 18th century, and is where a number of nationally significant insurance companies were founded. The buildings along Central Row are architecturally significant, encompassing a transition from early commercial architecture to that of the early 20th century. The district's taller buildings, including the Travelers Tower, were designed by architectural firms based in New York City and already experienced in skyscraper design. Most of the district's buildings are now owned by the

Travelers Insurance The Travelers Companies, Inc., commonly known as Travelers, is an American insurance company. It is the second-largest writer of U.S. commercial property casualty insurance, and the sixth-largest writer of U.S. personal insurance through indepen ...

Company, which continues to be headquartered here.

Contributing buildings

*Putnam Tower, 6 Central Row *Travelers Office Building, 9-17 Central Row *Marble Pillar Building, 19-25 Central Row *Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection & Insurance Co. Building, 56 Prospect Street *Travelers Office Building, 59 Prospect Street (also known as 26 Grove Street) *The

, 1 Tower Square and one noncontributing building: *Travelers Office Building, 740 Main St. and

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Historic districts in Hartford County, Connecticut Neoclassical architecture in Connecticut Geography of Hartford, Connecticut National Register of Historic Places in Hartford, Connecticut Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut

Description

Contributing buildings

See also

References