As a CT building decays, a push emerges for a hospital to be better stewards of historic property

HARTFORD — The 1920s apartment building on the edge of Hartford Hospital‘s campus isn’t much to look at these days: forlorn, boarded up and apparently rotten from the inside out.

But the structure, owned by the hospital since 2010, is emerging as a rallying flashpoint in the surrounding Frog Hollow neighborhood. The neighborhood is urging the hospital to take better care of historic buildings on its campus, especially vacant, decaying ones — and find new uses for them.

Hartford Hospital, part of Hartford HealthCare, has pushed to demolish the 4-story apartment building at the corner of Washington and Jefferson streets, pointing to two engineering studies.

The studies concluded that the brick structure was unsafe, its walls crumbling and its interior floors collapsing. Restoring the structure would be tantamount to rebuilding it, according to the studies, a project that couldn’t be justified because it would cost too much.

The hospital also is under pressure from the city to do something with the building, after being cited for safety concerns, deterioration and blight.

Preservationists and neighborhood leaders oppose the demolition. They argue the hospital has no estimates for what saving the structure might cost and, even worse, no firm future plans for what would be done with property after a demolition, other than creating a grassy area.

“We had so many buildings in Hartford that were demolished because they had to come to down for ‘We’re going to make some future development’,” Mary A. Falvey, executive director of the Hartford Preservation Alliance, said. “Building comes down. And in the blink of an eye, the developer is gone, and we’re left with open parking lots.”

The push to demolish comes just days after the approval of a massive parking garage just two blocks away to accommodate a major expansion of the Connecticut Children’s hospital.

While compromises were made — including the relocation of three historic homes — some in the neighborhood are still smarting from a project that will push into one of Frog Hollow’s historic districts and a predominantly residential area.

The apartment building at 224 Washington St. also is part of an historic district. The Jefferson-Seymour National Historic District dates back to the late 1970s and includes dozens of structures around Hartford Hospital.

Marcus Ordoñez, co-chair of the Frog Hollow Neighborhood Revitalization Zone, said the group, which is involved in planning to promote vibrancy, opposes demolition, considering Frog Hollow’s historic architecture to be among its greatest assets.

“Our first priority is to preserve,” Ordoñez said. “But in the hopefully unlikelihood that it does get taken down, we want to ensure that something does go there, and that it is something that would not only benefit the patients — if that’s what they choose to do — but the neighborhood.”

The tension between saving the past and redeveloping to move ahead is thrown into particularly sharp relief on urban hospital campuses — especially ones with long histories like Hartford Hospital, founded in 1854.

Late last week, the hospital backed off a bit on the Washington Street property after encountering stiff opposition at separate meetings with the NRZ and the historic preservation commission.

The hospital told the commission, which would have to sign off on any demolition, that it would seek out further options.

‘Definitely haven’t’

Hartford Hospital has come under sharp criticism that it created its own problems when it comes the deterioration of its historic structures by not keeping up with maintenance.

When asked about that criticism, Keith Grant, the hospital’s vice president of operations, acknowledged that upkeep has fallen short.

But Grant said that was because Hartford Hospital was making other investments in the local community — particularly during Covid — that came at the expense of the historic structures. Now, in the aftermath of the pandemic, the buildings should become a higher priority.

“And that’s probably what we’re going to need to do,” Grant said.

Grant said an overall campus plan that includes the historic buildings is in the works. But Grant points to changes that are soon to be underway: Tidier landscaping at vacant properties and the replacement of windows that are now boarded up.

One of the bigger investments will be $2 million to restore the exterior if Levi Lincoln Felt House, at 142 Jefferson. The shingled, Queen Anne-style house stands out from the brick and brownstone construction of adjoining properties. The house was singled out as one of the most notable when the Jefferson-Seymour district was formed in 1979.

Felt began his business career at the age of 15 as an office boy for a Hartford start-up with a bright future — Travelers Insurance — and he retired 48 years later as its comptroller.

But his house, acquired by Hartford Hospital in 2010, has not fared as well. Now boarded up, ornamented chimneys — features that contribute to its architectural value — have been removed. Wooden decorative elements are rotting and planks on the front porch are warping.

Grant, walking along Jefferson St. on Friday, said the Felt House could be used for offices. But converting other brownstone and brick structures nearby to clinical space is more challenging because they are not large enough, Grant said.

That is certainly the case with the Washington Street apartment building, Grant said. But a potential solution might rest with the building next to the Felt House, Grant said.

Two Italianate-style homes were demolished but replaced with replicas using some of the original building materials. The new building now houses a community health center that logged 17,000 primary care adult patient visits in fiscal 2022, demonstrating a clear need for the services, according to the hospital.

The idea might make preservationists bristle, but Grant said it could make a stretch of Jefferson Street a central location for an expansion of much-needed community health services.

Nevertheless, the hospital is committed to keeping a historic feel along Jefferson, the heart of the historic district, Grant said.

“So even if demolition is done, I don’t think it’s demolition with the entirety of the building,” Grant said, of 224 Washington St. “It might be a complete strip down or even take it down and use the brick to put the facade back.”

A comprehensive plan for the historic structures is vital to preserving them because vacant buildings are vulnerable, the preservation alliance’s Falvey said.

Falvey is tracking a dozen on the hospital’s campus, but there was a recent casualty.

A short walk away from the Jefferson Street clinic, a fire in an historic apartment building at 134 Seymour St. so compromised the structure, the city ordered that it be razed. A pile of rubble was still seen Friday rising above a sheathed construction fence.

Falvey also noted that visible building deterioration has a broader, harmful effect on perception of the city.

“People don’t realize that Hartford Hospital owns all these buildings,” Falvey said. “And it’s just dragging down Hartford as a whole because people coming in from the suburbs to Hartford Hospital say, ‘Oh well, yeah, this is Hartford.’ ”

Kenneth R. Gosselin can be reached at kgosselin@courant.com.