Note: This post continues the Saving a West End Home series, please also see Part 1 and Part 2. Architectural details make West End homes unique and interesting, but also add to the complexity of renovation projects. Christian Winkley, of Oxford Builders, recognized that challenge from the start. Throughout the demolition process he and his team carefully salvaged original fixtures and materials that would eventually be part of the revitalized home. Do Not Disturb Many
Note: This post continues our series on Saving a West End Home. Jan Klein thought about the run-down house next door again. She’d been thinking about it a lot since it was listed for sale. It was an attractive home, one with a considerable amount of architectural character, but it was in desperate need of a new owner who would be willing to take on the years of cumulative wear. As a long-time resident of
Historic preservation is a labor of love, with individuals and small groups fighting to restore pieces of our collective past. Two families in Hartford’s West End, the Kleins and the Winkleys, have stepped up to personally commit their resources and talents to revitalize a historic home in their neighborhood. By the time they’re finished, the team will have transformed a poorly maintained and out-of-date structure into a brand new Shingle style home circa 1905. For
Work continues on the future Hartford Public Safety Complex on High Street. These pictures show the progress as of Saturday, June 27, 2009. The current schedule calls for the project to be complete in April 2011, and look something like this. The roof of the former Hartford Board of Education building has been removed as crews work to preserve the historic brick facade. Looking into the structure, the second floor railing and spindles are visible
Word on the street is that the Dollar World on Farmington Avenue in the West End of Hartford is moving. Actually it’s the sign in the window that says they’re moving, but word has spread through the neighborhood like the flu through daycare. The locals aren’t upset with Dollar World, it just had the misfortune of leasing the storefront that previously housed the West End organic food institution of Cheese & Stuff. About ten years