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: 50How much for fun is this? The gingerbread version of 1 Imlay Street now resides at NINA's offices, and so we are able to present now a much, much closer look at this masterpiece of the culinary arts. The team that put this together did an extraordinary job, and we're pretty sure it was robbed of its deserved victory at the auction!
First of all, it’s official: last year’s Caroling in the Park was the first annual Caroling in the Park! We had another good event with another good turnout this year, and we had loads of fun. I will confess, though, that I still don’t get the whole elf on stilts thing. Also, this year’s Santa (me) was the worst Santa ever! He promises (swears!) he’ll never do this again.
Mike Marshall at Aetna informed us today that the gingerbread version of 1 Imlay Street came in second place at Aetna’s charity auction, with a bid of $250. The $250 will go to Hartford Habitat for Humanity as a charitable donation. Just one more example of how much non-profit peers and our corporate partners can accomplish together!
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 quarters for Hartford families whose apartments required lead remediation, since that work can be so toxic that no one without EPA-approved gear should be around it. The City recently decided to go in a different direction for its lead abatement program, so the non-profit closed up shop, and Saint Francis Hospital, the owner of the buildings, was left wondering what to do with them. Naturally, they thought immediately of us!
We don't know much about the buildings yet, but as we start to plan for their restoration we will quickly learn a lot. We didn't want to keep you from your first view of them, though! They are so early in our pipeline, we haven't even been inside yet.
How cool is this? Our executive director came across this today, 1 Imlay Street rendered in gingerbread by a group of Aetna employees. Their project is part of a charity auction that will be held to raise money for local Hartford non-profits.
Aetna employees have been walking by our work at 1 Imlay for quite some time now, and we're very pleased that our work has inspired them.
One of the people who stopped by for the open house today was Karen Pannone, architect with Clohessy Harris & Kaiser. After our bosses came to their agreement on the height the windows should be, Karen was dispatched to meet me and to take the measurements for the third floor windows. So, while I may have been the measure, it was really Karen who set the standard!
Photo by Bernie Michel.
We didn’t hold an open house for 1 Imlay because we were under contract long before we finished the house, so today, in partnership with the new owners, we opened the house to our friends and neighbors from Asylum Hill.
About 75-80 people attended, and most of them, including two descendants of the original homeowner, were Aetna employees. This was a great opportunity for us to show off the house and talk about our future plans for the Nook Farm section of Asylum Hill.
Aetna’s support and contributions to this project have been invaluable, and we are extremely grateful that Aetna continues to be such an active partner with us in the revitalization of Asylum Hill.
Since we were hosts, we weren't able to take any photos, but Bernie Michel was able to swing by and snap some pics as we were setting up for the shindig.
A group of volunteers from The Hartford came down today to help out with hanging drywall at 54 Huntington Street. They were members of Andy Daly's team, and Andy is a member of the NINA Board of Directors.
Today we bid farewell to our house at 1 Imlay Street -- it now belongs to Hartford's newest homeowners. This was a great project, and we are very proud of how it turned out, especially because we were able to take it almost all the way back to how it would have looked in 1875. We hope the new homeowners will have as much fun living here as we had rehabbing it!
