After some debate about which neighborhood this house is in, I checked out a map to see that it is in Barry Square. Just west of Broad Street, this house has sports fields in its backyard. A short walk across the Trinity campus would bring you to the Underground Coffeehouse, something that, for non-Trinity folks, is too-well-kept of a secret. I’ve learned that this coffee joint is open seven days a week, and contrary to what the web page states, has hours late into the evening. It might be the only (non-DD) place to get a decent cup of coffee in Hartford after 3pm on a Sunday.
After my initial excitement of stumbling across this house, I thought that it might not actually fit the Casa Linda criteria, which is only that people live there. Looking through Trinity campus maps, I found that my guess was likely correct. That side of campus contains administrative, cultural, and religious buildings. So, I’m going to break the rules and post this anyway, but rest assured, this does not set a precedent for a wave of houses that have been turned into law and psychotherapy offices. Since I found another house nearby that also is not a true Casa Linda, I’m posting the photo below:
This house is rendered nearly invisible, as it’s surrounded by churches and an apartment building, but it’s also kind of independent, not needing to be around a bunch of other houses either. It’s across from a tiny park and only a short walk from Bushnell Park.
This house is in the South End, not far from Cedar Hill Cemetery and Goodwin Park.
This home is wedged between Bushnell Park and The Bushnell– an awesome location for people-watching.
This week’s featured home was found on a quiet, residential side street in the Blue Hills neighborhood. As you might have noticed, I like to show houses from what’s dubbed “North Hartford” which are not anything like what may come to mind after listening to one crime report after another. Data released by the Hartford Police Department for the week of February 13-19, 2011 showed crime in Blue Hills to be at the same level as that in the West End and Southwest neighborhoods.
This secluded area of the West End is surprising. It’s mostly hidden, despite being in the space between Asylum Avenue and Homestead Avenue. All of the homes on this street appear to drip with wealth. At the same time, a look at the assessor’s website indicates a wide range of home prices. Some were purchased in the low $100,000 range not all that long ago. There are several homes that cost around half a million dollars. One house was purchased a few years ago for over one million dollars. The home in the photo was modestly priced for its size and location.
This fuchsia house is not far from the Lyceum Resource and Conference Center. It’s on a woefully forgotten street, despite its proximity to an elementary school; it looked like it had yet to meet a snowplow since the most recent storm. After trudging through snow slurry, dodging dog feces, and alternating between sidewalk and street due to sections where unshoveled snow was three feet high, I reached the day-glo pink house. It was tidy. The sidewalk in front was shoveled. There were signs of life.
Faded and dilapidated multifamily houses are a dime a dozen in Hartford. Finding homes that look cared for and even vibrant amidst the uninspired and neglected ones makes for a special treat.
There are a few visible cosmetic items that could be dealt with on this house, but so what? As a whole, it’s cute. If you look at the tax assessor site, you can see the “before” photo. Either the latest owner put in a lot of work or that image was taken from the house’s “bad angle.”
As a sidenote, some of the other houses in the neighborhood are in far worse decay. An example of this is a two family historical house at 64 Babcock, which is owned by the Southern New England Conference Association of Seventh Day Adventists, who want to destroy the blighted house to build an addition to their church on Russ Street, which abuts the property. Despite being an historical structure (built approximately 1880 according to tax records), the house has been allowed to actually deterioriate more since the church purchased it. Of course, blighted properties are everywhere and it seems none of the owners are ever forced to improve their buildings.
This week’s featured residence is located on a main street in the South Green neighborhood. This house is located in spitting distance of both Frog Hollow and Downtown.
The South Green neighborhood has only about 9.45% of its housing units occupied by their owners; one of the ways to fight blight is to increase owner occupancy. This building, at least from the front and the outside, looks to be in good shape. There are eight rental units in this building.
On the top floor you can see a person looking out the window. When I took this picture, the Three Kings Day Parade was happening directly in front of the building. This is a busy street in general, as it hosts many small businesses: auto repair and hardware stores, jewelers, cafés, furniture shops, a half dozen clothing stores, a dozen markets, over a dozen beauty salons and barber shops and about fifteen restaurants.
This home was found in the Sheldon/Charter Oak neighborhood, not far from another Casa Linda.
Colt Park takes up about half of the Sheldon/Charter Oak neighborhood. It includes Dillon Stadium, Kinsella Magnet, Butler-McCook Homestead, Polish National Home, Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius Church, the Connecticut Creative Store, Sports and Medical Science Academy, and a whole lot of revitalization efforts in recent years. This neighborhood has about three times the population of Downtown, but only one-third the amount of violent and property crime that Downtown experiences. While looking at data, I learned that my neighborhood, which has been described as “rough” and “dangerous” actually has less violent crime (at least reported) than Downtown.
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