A series of entries designed to capture the ongoing adventures of NINA! See how we came to be where we are today, and follow along as we enter the new century of social media!
Page: 34
Jonathan Clark took us on a walk through the old Town Farm and past the former site of the Alms House.
Today, Mike Stockman worked his last day as construction manager for NINA as he officially embarked on retirement. Mike has worked for NINA for nearly a decade, and he has been a jack-of-all-trades as he's managed our construction schedules, overseen volunteers, worked on the houses himself, and completed, as he always called them, his "honey-do" lists that ensured that every house was ready for our new homeowners.
This goes under the heading of things we noticed in the neighborhood – we saw this new sign up as we were out and about today, and we stopped for a photo.
Incidentally, we only feel slightly out of touch – apparently HCLF re-dedicated the building back in October!
Some scenes from the work on 94 Ashley.
Tonight we were part of a tour for Christopher Swift, CEO of The Hartford, and Mary Swift, his wife. They were joined on their tour by Kathleen Bromage, Chief Markeing and Communications Officer for The Hartford. This tour was arranged by Diane Cantello, Vice President, Corporate Sustainability at The Hartford, and it was organized by Morgan Ferrarotti, Director of Strategic Community Investments at The Hartford. We worked with them to connect the Swifts with Katie Kokias, one of the residential tenants at 207 Garden Street, and she very graciously took us through her apartment. We also worked with Steve Borla and Naveed Sobhan of the Hartford Community Loan Fund to host the Swifts for dinner. Together, we were able to give the Swifts a real inside look at 207 Garden Street and everything that had gone into its rehabilitation.
The Swifts’ visit 207 Garden was the last stop on the tour that Diane and Morgan put together, and we all enjoyed the chance to sit, enjoy dinner from Kent Pizza just downstairs, and to talk about our work as well as the broader effort to revitalize Hartford and Asylum Hill. The Hartford has been a tremendous partner with us since we were founded – in fact, they founded us! – and we appreciate how strongly The Hartord continues to invest in NINA as we near 15 years of working together in Asylum Hill.
Naturally we celebrated the moment with a joint photograph! Pictured from left to right are Kathleen Bromage, Morgan Ferrarotti, David Corrigan, Christopher Swift, Mary Swift, Diane Cantello, Naveed Sohan, and Steve Borla. We’re in HCLF’s conference room, which overlooks Garden Street.
We had another group of Trinity students out today to help with the owrk at 94 Ashley Street. Here they are after all the hard work -- they seemed to have had a good time!
In a stop over at 207 Garden Street today, we learned that the Hartford Community Loan Fund has changed the name of the building! The building, which we had named in honor of George Zunner, its architect, is now the Jacobson Building, in honor of Elinor P. Jacobson, more widely known as Elly Jacobson.
According to HCLF, Jacobson was president of their board of directors when she began to push the organization to find a new, more central location for its cramped offices in the South End, which had been HCLF’s primary focus prior to expanding its services citywide. Jacobson, who passed away in 2009, held a variety of positions around Hartford, including Director of Community Services at Trinity College, and she was also active in Hartford politics and on other non-profit boards, in particular the Hartford Artists Collective.
HCLF has installed this portrait of Jacobson in their lobby.
Our latest new construction now belongs to new homeowners! A young couple will now move into the house, and we are very pleased to welcome them to their new home and to the neighborhood.
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.
