Sad City Readers Know Hartford History

Last week we took a look at some photos of the Hartford Civic Center roof collapse of 1978. While examining the photos we wondered what was the colorful mural we could see in the photo. Sad City reader Doug sent us a link to the artist Michael Borders website along with a brief history of the mural.




"The mural at the lower left was by artist Michael Borders and was called "Genesis of the Capital City." Here's to a link to a good photo of it on his website: http://www.michaelborders.org/mu3.htm.
The building it was on the side of, which housed the original downtown McDonalds, was later razed for one of the City Place towers.
Also, for what it's worth, the white granite building almost directly above the caved in part of the roof and just in front of I-84, was the main Hartford post office on High Street.
Another building you can kind of see is at the west end of the beloved Church St. parking garage, filling the still empty space between the garage and Ann St. That was the Hartford Hotel, a place hated by image-conscious city officials, because it was essentially a flophouse, a place where the otherwise homeless, people who didn't always dress for success, could live. I don't remember the details, but eventually there was some kind of repair project that damaged the building's structural integrity, so that it was considered vulnerable to collapse. It was condemned and torn down."


Thanks Doug!