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 One of the more striking buildings in SoDo is The Linden, built in 1891 for Frank Brown and James Thomson, principals in Brown, Thomson & Company. With its ornate cupola, the structure –- built as an apartment house – dominates the landscape at the corner of Main Street and Capitol Avenue.
Around the corner from The Linden on Capitol Avenue is a row of brownstones. These were built in two stages – the four houses on the right were built in 1870 and the three houses on the left were built in 1875. This span of townhouses is the only complete brownstone row still standing in Hartford. |
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In the 1870's when Bushnell Park was enlarged, the brownstone rowhouses along Elm and Trinity streets were torn down and replaced by magnificent structures for major insurance companies. The Orient Insurance Company building went up in 1905 as a classic Beaux-Arts design with marble façade and Ionic columns flanking its front entrance. Six years later, the Edinburgh-based Scottish Union and National Insurance Company building was constructed. Designed by Edward T. Hapgood, two-story building featured a portico, arched windows and Ionic pilasters. In 1917, the Phoenix Insurance Company building went up on the corner of Elm and Trinity streets. The company had established itself as a major player by promptly paying claims after the great Chicago fire of 1871 and its architecture reflected its reputation in the city. In 1920, the Phoenix was building again – this time, a Florentine palace was the inspiration for the brick structure with colorful, glazed tiles between the floors on the building's exterior. Finally, as a bookend to the row of stately commercial buildings, the Connecticut General Life Insurance Company raised their building in 1926 at the east end of Elm street, facing what is now Pulaski Circle. The building was modeled after the 15th-century Medici-Riccardi Palace in Florence, Italy. | |||||||||||||||
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