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: 5Focusing on the porch at 285 Farmington Avenue (screamingly obvious, thanks to the City), which is along the South Marshall Street side of the house.
I went downtown to photograph Saint Patrick-Saint Anthony Catholic Church today as part of getting our walking tours and our neighborhood history websites up and running. Turns out this is a terrible time of the year to try to take a photo of this church, on the south side of the street! I did get an interesting effect, though, in particular on the portrait orientation – it almost looks like a halo around the church.
So why try to photograph this church in the first place? The story around Asylum Hill is that this church is the model for the Asylum Hill Congregational Church and that possibly the two churches were twins. Problem is, the church that would have been “twinned” with Asylum Hill Congregational Church burned down in 1875 and again in 1956. It was built back both times mostly according to the original design, but not quite. The current church resembles the original church only below the belfry.
Is there actually a case to be made for this Legend of the Hill? Not really. They are certainly stylistically related because they were designed by the same architect, Patrick Keely, and it seems likely that the Asylum Hill Congregational Society likely hired him based on his local reference, i.e., Saint Patrick-Saint Anthony Catholic Church, which Keely designed just over a decade before he worked on Asylum Hill Congregational Church.
Walls are up: kitchen, parlor, primary bedroom, and the porch underway.
I currently have several calls for photos for the neighborhood, so I took a walk around today and thought I’d share the results.
The Hartford Land Bank owns 287-289 Sargeant Street, a beautiful but blighted 2-family home down by Woodland Street. We’re interested – it’s right next door to a past NINA project at 291-293 Sargeant Street – and we’re talking to the land bank and to a local developer, Vintage Home Restoration, about the potential for a partnership to rehabilitate this house and create an owner-occupied opportunity here.
The insulation work is done, and now walls are going up. Also, a shower and tub!
A group from Fresh Start Pallet Products was working on the porch at 29 Ashley Street today. First step, taking down the old porch! At the same time, the house was being painted, and now the house’s final form has begun to emerge. In the afternoon, Bernie Michel joined in, helping to dig a hole for the footing, and that’s Ken Johnson over on the far right of that photo.
Noticed this weird pattern of sunlight on Collins Street, and then I turned around to see the source.
