Hartford Fire Insurance Company pushed for a new route for the Broad Street extension

1. “The proposed extension, it is said, will later include a part of the Thomas M. Day estate, near the apex of Farmington avenue and Asylum street, in order that there may be a clear path through Broad street, and through the proposed extension to its outlet.”
2. The design also included a second street, Lisbon Street, that would run from midway along the Broad Street Extension through Sumner Street.
3. Richard Bissell said that the company’s objections were solely with regards to the Broad Street Extension and that the company had no objections to the proposed second street, which was Lisbon Street.

Hartford Fire’s proposal required referral to the Hartford Board of Water Commissioners because the requested change to the Broad Street Extension would pass through the Garden Street Reservoir, requiring its abandonment.

1. It appears that Hartford Fire was willing to relinquish the rights it was acquiring to the Garden Street Reservoir, but this offer came up at the end of the article, as the article was re-stating the offer from earlier in the article. It’s somewhat strange that this additional offer was not mentioned earlier in the article, as this offer seems likely to have been the greatest incentive the city would have to agree to Hartford Fire’s proposal.
2. I won’t pretend I can puzzle out the planned course of the Broad Street Extension. In 1919, Collins Street and Garden Street crossed each other at a four-way intersection, so the article seems to describe the creation of a five-way intersection.

1. The Hartford Board of Street Commissioners approved plans for extending Broad Street from Farmington Avenue to Garden Street.
2. The Hartford Fire Insurance Company assumed it would acquire the American School for the Deaf’s rights to the Garden Street Reservoir property.

The Hartford Fire Insurance Company’s offer was set to go before a special meeting of the Hartford Board of Water Commissioners tomorrow at 2:00 PM.

1. “The necessity of an extension to Broad street has long been admitted by street department authorities as, at present, there is no public thoroughfare leading from the north side of Garden to Sumner street, a distance of approximately 1,700 feet, or about a third of a mile.”
2. “The Garden street reservoir was artificially constructed and, owing to the completion of the new Nepaug reservoir it is no longer considered a necessity.”
3. “It is understood that the company’s plans call for an office building built in wing extension, in order to give the maximum light to all departments.”

1. Richard M. Bissell was president of the Hartford Fire Insurance Company.
2. Although the Broad Street Extension had been proposed as early as 1912, this article is the earliest description of the future Cogswell Street and the Trident (the “apex” of Farmington and Asylum Avenues) that I have so far found.
3. This article is the earliest reference I’ve found to what would become the Trident, at the “apex” of Farmington and Asylum Avenues.
4. The planned extension of Broad Street cut through the campus of the American School for the Deaf, meaning Hartford Fire was acquiring property that would be on both sides of the Broad Street Extension.
5. The current distance from the “north side” of Garden Street, which is the point at which it enters Asylum Avenue, and Sumner Street is approximately 1,282.5 feet.
6. Although the project to open the Broad Street Extension appeared imminent at this point in time, it would not be opened until 1933.
7. Hartford does have a Lisbon Street, but it’s down by Colt Park.

Unattributed.  “Water Board will take up Hartford Fire offer today.”  Hartford Courant, June 11, 1919, page 4.