Trivia: Five for Real
Day three of anniversary festivities brings you trivia. If you’ve won already, you can keep playing. Whoever gets the most questions answered correctly first wins.
- What was stolen from the Sherwood Park Zoo in 1969?
- Where were the majority of city brothels located in the mid-nineteenth century?
- What collapsed in Hartford before the Civic Center roof did? (It was kind of a big deal)
- Where was Connecticut’s first synagogue built?
- Approximately how many theaters existed in Hartford in 1932? (You need to be +/- 2)
- Where was a speakeasy located outside of Downtown?
- Who filed a lawsuit against Ford in 1903 and lost?
- What sits on the former location of an orphanage?
- Where are the three access points to the buried part of the Park River?
- Which was the final synagogue to say “adios” to Hartford?
The deadline is midnight. Answers must be left here in the comments to be counted.
3. The Ringling Bros./Barnum & Bailey circus tent in 1944.
4.On Charter Oak Ave., now the Charter Oak Cultural Center.
One of those answers is right, one of them is not. I’m not saying which is which.
1) an elephant
2) front street
3) circus tent
4) New Haven
7) Colonel Pope
8) the village for families and children on albany ave
9) Pope Park near Hamilton, near Farmington and Lorraine and the Connecticut River between Charter Oak Landing and Riverfront Plaza
10) Ados Israel on Pearl Street (ha ha)
Four wrong
Three correct
One incomplete
Okay, time for some hints.
These are all in Hartford.
#3 has nothing to do with the circus, if you can imagine that
#7 was Brendan’s incomplete answer.
#3 The shipping industry!
Oh it’s so sad how few of these I know
Ha! In the figurative sense, you are correct. I was looking for a literal answer though.
#3 Park Hotel, 1889
#4 first one built specifically to be a synagogue was on Charter Oak Ave. But Congregation Beth Israel had previously converted to the First Baptist Church into their synagogue, calling it Touro Hall.
Correct.
You are so, so close!
Ooh, and I was SO sure I had #4 right, too! Thanks for the clarification, Jennifer.
You were right about #4. It’s just a clarification. There had been buildings used as synagogues previously, but the first one built with the intention of it being a synagogue was on Charter Oak, what is now the Charter Oak Cultural Center.
Was I incorrect about #3?
There is one word missing from its name.
Park Central Hotel
Yes!
#1,5,6,7,and8 still have not been guessed correctly
#1 tranquilizer gun and bottle of deadly poison
Yes. Why steal animals when you can take a poison dart gun?
#7 Col. Albert A. Pope
Who was his partner in this lawsuit?
George B. Selden?
#5: 18 – Cameo, Colonial, Crown, Fox-Poli Capital, Fox-Poli Palace, Lenox, Liberty, Loews, Lyric, Parsons, Princess, Publix Allen, Regal, Rialto (Franklin Ave), Rialto (Park), State, Strand, Tunxis. Plus Astor in EH and Central in WH.
Adding the EH and WH is just being a smartypants!
You got it!
#6,7, and 8 are still unanswered (or half-answered)
#6: The Spigot!
#8 well, there was one at 11 Washington St, which would either be the CT Dept. of Agriculture or the Lafayette Statue.
Hmmm…could there be more than one? Neither of these were what I was thinking of. There is at least one more.
Oops…I thought you were commenting on the speakeasy, not the orphanage. Was there an orphanage on Washington Street? Could there have been more than one?
The Hartford Orphan Asylum was first on Washington Street, then moved to RUSS & PUTNAM, and finally to what is now The Village for Families and Children. So my answer is Burns School.
DANG!
I think you just schooled everyone.
I did have to go into the closed stacks for that one (other ref materials I used are in the open stacks). But I learned something, and that theoretically will help me do my job better. Which is how I justified spending so much time on this today. You call it trivia; I call it a reference refresher!
I’ve learned that room 109 at Burns is allegedly haunted. Wonder if that has anything to do with it being on the former orphanage site.
#7: Albert A. Pope, William C. Whitney (of the EVC) and George B. Selden
Oh snap! Jennifer has a challenger!
There is still one item not answered with satisfaction, but I’m going to go ahead and give more info about all the others:
1. Sherwood Forest Zoo operated out of Keney Park but had to be closed down after years of neglect and some vandalism. The incident in 1969 involved the theft of a dart gun and the poison to go with it. Can’t imagine why nobody wanted that out in the world.
2. Most of the brothels were in the Front Street neighborhood.
3. The Park Central Hotel collapsed in 1889 after the apparent explosion of the boiler; that explosion was felt as far away as West Simsbury. Reports vary, but somewhere between 22-25 died during this. The hotel was located on High and Allyn Streets.
4.The first building intended as a synagogue when it was built is located at 21 Charter Oak Avenue.
5. I’ve seen it listed as both 17 and 18 theaters existing in Hartford during the 1930s. That’s kind of awesome.
6. Still waiting on you all for the answer about the speakeasy
7. Pope (and company…see comments) filed and lost. The lawsuit didn’t even reach completion until after Pope and Day’s deaths.
8.Burns school is at the site where an orphanage (different building) used to be. It was located on Washington Street previously.
9. People tend to forget that there is more than one branch of the Park River. The South Branch is buried at the edge of Pope Park between Hamilton and Park Street. The North Branch is buried next to Farmington Avenue, across from the Twain House. The river empties into the CT River in a location between the Riverfront Plaza and Charter Oak Landing.
10. Ados Israel was the last synagogue to call it quits in Hartford. Last I knew, it was being used as a storage space. Technically, while not designated as a synagogue anymore, the Charter Oak Cultural Center does hold a Passover Seder in its space.
See, regarding the synagogue question, the internet says that the first congregation was in New Haven. I don’t know a lot about Judaism, but I’m assuming congregation = synagogue.
Not same thing. There were gatherings (congregations) in other facilities previously, but those buildings were not designed as synagogues. They just would use the space.
Also, it’s part of the New Haven-as-center-of-universe conspiracy…the bitterness that the capitol ended up not being there.
http://www.charteroakcenter.org/index.php/about-us/history/
Also, the village was an orphanage, but I don’t think the buildings are the same.
What is now The Village was the Hartford Orphan Asylum, which is what had been located where Burns is now. The Village is the result of HOA merging with some other entity.