117 Sigourney Street

This building has several distinctions: it was the first piece of the old Pliny Jewell Estate to be subdivided and developed, and it may have been the first apartment building built in Asylum Hill. Dunn & Waterman, who briefly owned the Jewell Estate, carved off the driveway onto Sigourney Street to build this three-family in 1913. If it isn't the first apartment building in the neighborhood, it's certainly part of Asylum Hill's transformation from homeownership to rentals. Over the years, it was subdivided into 15 units before Aetna skinnied it down to 6, at which point it became part of the CIty's Lead Safe Homes program. NINA restored it to its original footprint, with the only difference being that it is owner-occupied.

117 Sigourney Street

First Floor

Red dots are before photos, and yellow dots are after photos. Dots represent approximate location of photographer. Use slider to see before and after floor plans: slide to right to see before, and slide to left to see after.

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Second Floor

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Third Floor

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Project Details

Started:	July 2018
Completed:	March 2020
Total Budget:	$769,909

Project Milestones

Acquisition:	April 13, 2015
Building Permit:	October 24, 2018
Certificate of Occupancy:	March 18, 2020
Closing on Sale:	April 30, 2020

Project History

Springtime on Sigourney Street 5/12/2020 Our volunteer photographer Stan Guzek dropped by today to take some exteriors at 115 and 117 Sigourney Street.
		Sold! 5/1/2020 Not even a pandemic can stop us! Today we closed on the sale of 117 Sigourney Street, and the new owner and her family will now call one of the units their new home. They are longstanding Hartford residents, and we're glad they chose to buy their first home here. In case you’re wondering, real estate transactions are exempt from remote working restrictions, but we did no
115 & 117 Sigourney Street at Twilight 4/28/2020 As we get ready to say good-bye to 117 Sigourney Street, I dropped by for a glamour shot of the two homes.
		Volunteering during the Pandemic 4/23/2020 We had a bit of an interesting situation arise. As our contractors finished up at 117 Sigourney Street, they decided to use the municipal recycling carts for all of their trash – not exactly what the City intended! But there’s no dumpster at 117 anymore, and now that we’re moving rapidly to closing on 117 we had a bit of a problem … As luck would have
Final touches at 117 Sigourney 2/25/2020 Work on the front door today. That’s Matt Pearce working on the door and Bruce Cormier working on the intercom system.
		Balcony Doors at 117 Sigourney Street 12/20/2019 These are reference shots for the future, in case I lose track of which floor is which in old photos, but they also show how individual improvements are made to historic buildings. Once upon a time, these doors would have been the same. Of course, once upon a time they also opened onto a balcony – we think. I mean, we know there was some sort of balcony attached to the f
Volunteers from Aetna and the Asylum Hill Congregational Church 11/15/2019 We’re trying to figure out if this is the first time we had volunteers from two different places. We think it is, and we think we’ll do it again! Rich Grobe and Tony Mein supervised today.
		Volunteers from Aetna 11/12/2019 Two volunteers from Aetna came over today to continue painting at 117 Sigourney. They were overseen by Tony Mein, a long-time friend of NINA and a longer-time resident of Asylum Hill.
Volunteers from Aetna 09/27/2019 Today a group came over from Aetna to help out with painting, which included the porch post for 115 Sigourney as well as color on the walls at 117.
		The Hartford's Annual Day of Caring 2019, Part 3 09/24/2019 We really lucked out this year! This was our third group from The Hartford as part of Day of Caring. The Hartford is committed to community service, and it gives its employees the opportunity to volunteer for Day of Caring as fits their schedule. This has been a tremendous boon for NINA over the years, as every volunteer helps us to keep our homes affordable for their future o
The Hartford's Annual Day of Caring 2019, Part 2 09/18/2019 We are very fortunate that The Hartford is one of our member institutions! As has happened for the previous several years, we got a second group of volunteers for the Day of Caring. This group included Andy Daly, president of our Board of Directors, and his boss, David Robinson, who is General Counsel at The Hartford.
		The Hartford's Annual Day of Caring 2019 09/11/2019 A group from The Hartford went to work painting at 117 Sigourney Street today as part of The Hartford’s annual Day of Caring event.
2019 Bantam Beginnings 08/28/2019 We had our annual group of Trinity College freshmen volunteering today at all of our project sites. These two students were at 115 & 117 Sigourney, while the rest were down on Hawthorn -- and yes, I was too lazy to go down and get a group shot. I did learn something today: this group volunteered as part of Bantam Beginnings, the official name for the freshman orientation
		Progress at 117 Sigourney 06/10/2019 A peek into the future living area on the third floor.
More wallpaper 05/10/2019 Another floor, another strip of wallpaper. Same period, though.
		Volunteer from Aetna 05/10/2019 Anneke Velthuizen volunteered at 115 & 117 Sigourney Street today. Anneke, who works at Aetna, pitched in with Keith Powell and David Cunningham to get a lot of work done today, which helps us to keep our homes affordable for their future owners. Interested in volunteering? We advertise volunteer opportunities through our member institutions, but if you don’t work f
Progress at 117 Sigourney 04/04/2019 The new rear stairs are under construction, and framing is move along nicely.
		A bit of forensic carpentry 04/04/2019 Been meaning to post a photos of the wallpaper we found behind the more modern wallboard for awhile now.
You never know what you'll find 02/01/2019 It's always fun to pull down the modern walls in a historic building, because you just never know what you'll find. At 117 Sigourney Street, we found a bucket above the ceiling. Best guess is that it was a worker who left it there, from when the building was built or for some repair work done after that.
		Volunteers from The Hartford At work on 117 Sigourney Street 12/06/2018 A group of volunteers from The Hartford's IT section came in today to help out on 117 Sigourney Street. They helped out with removing nails and hauling in the new windows, which arrived this morning.
New and Old Egresses at 117 Sigourney Street 12/03/2018 Over at 117 Sigourney, we've started on new egresses as well as closing up old ones. Along the south side of the building, we've removed the doors that led to the fire escape, and this work is then a prelude to removing the fire escape altogether. Around at the back of the building, we're adding a new egress: this new back door will lead to a new, interior stair
		Volunteers from The Hartford At work on 117 Sigourney Street 11/08/2018 We had a group in from The Hartford today, and they did some particularly dirty work! Inside they pulled nails, part of the interior demolition process, and outside they hauled stuff from the basement to the dumpster. It isn't always glamorous, but every volunteer contributes directly to the future affordability of our homes!
Volunteers from Aetna at work on 117 Sigourney Street 11/07/2018 A group from Aetna came in today to pull nails. This still counts as interior demolition, and it allows us to hang new walls and ceilings cleanly.
		Day of Caring at 117 Sigourney Street 09/11/2018 We had a very large grouip of volunteers from The Hartford come out today for their annual Day of Caring. We expected most of the group, but we also picked up a couple of people from a nearby volunteer site after they finished their project earlier than anticipated. This was a great turnout, and we got a ton of stuff done today!
Do It Day at 117 Sigourney Street 09/08/2018 The defense from Trinity College's men's hockey team came out today as part of Trinity's annual Do It Day. It was all demolition, and all of it was stuff thrown out windows (into a waiting dumpster, of course!). How much fun was that?
		meanwhile, over at 117 Sigourney Street ... 09/07/2018 Interior demolition continues apace.
Team Rubicon at 117 Sigourney Street 7/21/2018 Team Rubicon came by today to start the interior demolition for us. They went to work on the second floor, and they did an amazing amount of work! That dumpster was empty this morning …. The event was organized by Vic Civitello, a carpenter who works with us regularly who is also a military veteran. Team Rubicon is a veteran service organization that uses disaste
		Thanks To Our Friends From JELLO! 1/17/2017 A group of students participating in Trinity College's January Experience of Living, Learning, and Outreach (JELLO) volunteered today at 115 and 117 Sigourney Street. Work included cleaning up the site, inside and out, and making the whole place look presentable. Trinity College and NINA have partnered now for close to 10 years, with groups of students coming up at least three ti
First Look down the pipeline 12/16/2014 One of our members, Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center, is giving us property for Christmas! 115 Sigourney Street and 117 Sigourney Street have long been part of the City of Hartford's Lead Abatement Program. A non-profit that managed the program had its offices on the first floor of 115, and then the second floor of 115 and all of the units in 117 were temporary living

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