Grading of Pearl Street underway

1. The African Methodist Episcopal Church and a fire station would be raised to the new level of the street.
2. Buildings on the north side of the street would be demolished, and new buildings would be built there by “Senator Hills” and Linus Plimpton.
3. The Aetna Life Insurance Company planned to construct a new building on the old jail lot.

1. “Senator Hills” was probably John R. Hills, who served in the state senate from 1882-1883 and who was also a mason and a building contractor in Hartford.
2. This article contains better evidence of the location of Plimpton property than the January 1882 Courant article does because this article describes the property based on its improvements, not on its ownership.  The “wood buildings” here are likely between 302 and 322 Pearl Street, site of a building described as under construction in the 1885 atlas of Hartford.

On January 24, 1882, the Courant reported that the Plimpton Manufacturing Company had purchased the Brinley property on Pearl Street.

1. The buildings the article refers to were on Pearl Street between Jewell Street and South Ann Street.
2. The fire house occupied the property that is now the west side of 275 Pearl Street, while the African Methodist Church was at the southwest corner of Pearl and South Ann streets.
3. The County Jail had occupied the western half of this block before it was demolished.

Unattributed.  “Grading Pearl street,” Hartford Daily Courant, March 17, 1882, page 2.