Boat Building

This is a curved, two-sided building, called locally "the boat building."  The two surfaces meet at the right of the building in the top photograph and again on the riverfront side (not shown).  To understand the shape, visualize a lens.  The second photograph gives a better view of the way the two sides meet.

 It was completed in 1961 for Phoenix Insurance Company, still the building's main tenant.

Floral and Flourishing West Hartford Center

This is to honor the recently departed summer season.

The sidewalks lining West Hartford Center have been loaded with planters.  Is it like that where you are?

Fall is here -- and it is finally raining after a severe drought in August and September -- so I guess I needed to post a final reminder of summer.

Red Hot Chilli Pipers

The Red Hot Chili Pipers -- a Scottish rock bagpipe band -- were the featured performers at yesterday's Pipes in the Valley Celtic Music Festival.  They were energetic and fun.

The festival was held at a pavilion on the banks of the Connecticut River in downtown Hartford.

The band played two sets, first in the afternoon and then the last set of the night.

Trinity Bell Tower

You saw the Trinity College Chapel and its bell tower earlier this month.

After giving Trinity a break for a couple of weeks, I thought it woul be OK to show the bell tower again, illuminated in the early evening.

OK.  Enough for Trinity for a while.  It might be time for the University of Hartford or the University of Connecticut.

Weekend Reflections: Connecticut Childrens Medical Center

A view at the regional children's medical center.  Looking in the windows and seeing the nearby pennants, trees and streetlights.

Colt Park

Samuel Colt was an important arms maker in the 19th century.    The Colt .45 pistol is the one most associated with Colt Manufacturing.  I know very little about firearms, so I will refer readers to Wikipedia, since, as you know, everything on the internet is true.

This is part of a statue in the Hartford park honoring him.  The youth represents Colt when he was a young sailor.  Above him is the main statue of Colt   as a powerful industrialist.  I don't like that part of the statue, so I didn't photograph it.

The Whale

Last month I posted about an effort to drum up fan support for a return of major league professional hockey to Hartford.  We had a team -- the Hartford Whalers -- until the team's new owners moved them to North Carolina in 1997.

Yesterday the first step toward that goal was announced. The Whalers' original owner reached agreement with the New York Rangers to manage the Rangers' Hartford-based minor league hockey team.  And . . . they will bring back the name in part, in the form of the "Connecticut Whale."  If they develop a big enough fan base, in a few years an attempt will be made to secure a major league NHL franchise.

I can hear Brass Bonanza playing already.