From Mick Melvin:
Driving to work every morning, I had always wondered about the huge, abandoned building located at the corner of Main and Trumbull streets in Hartford. It sits on its own little island in the middle of the city surrounded by parking lots near Route 84. I couldn’t imagine why this building was not scooped up by some developer. I searched the Internet trying to find out what was at this location, but came up with nothing. Much to my delight, I opened the newspaper one morning and there it was, “The Butt Ugly Building.”
I had no idea it was dubbed the “Butt Ugly Building” until that day. It is certainly a fitting name for the structure. When Dave told me his plans of starting this photo blog, this building was one of the first things I thought of capturing for the project. I hesitated to post any pictures because I didn’t know the history behind this butt-ugly building. As it turns out, it was the home of the H. B. Davis department store. The building has been vacant since the store closed 30 years ago.
The building has been in the headlines as of late because of legal problems surrounding the development of the property. The building has played a part in the demise of former Hartford Mayor, Eddie Perez (see 7-8-10 Hartford Courant, "City Moves to Buy Butt Ugly Building"). The new Mayor, Pedro Segarra, has plans to demolish the building next month and rid the city of this long standing eyesore.
When I was a kid, I loved going to the H.B. Davis Department Store with my mom. It was really nice in its heyday. I used to like to touch and play with all the nice things for sale. One day I almost broke something fragileand got scolded by my mom. It is sad how soulless our cities are today. So lacking in small interesting neighborhood stores.
ReplyDeletePS hard to believe from the photo, but it was anything but Butt Ugly in its heyday
ReplyDeleteThanks for adding some perspective and history to this post! I agree with what you say about soulless cities. I live outside Boston and I have a hard time keeping up with the destruction of cool old buildings in favor of glass-walled monstrosities....
DeleteMy daughter is going to wear a ring my father bought for me at H. B. Davis in 1970 as her "something old" for her wedding. I was looking for photos of the store. I will agree with the reply above, while it was as far north as we would go on Main Street at the time.. it wasn't ugly at all.
ReplyDeleteMary - that's so cool about the ring! I wish I'd seen this building when it was in its prime...
Delete