Hartford Fire offers the Hartford Board of Water Commissioners $20,000 for the Garden Street Reservoir

The order of the meeting is not clear from the article, but a rough approximation is as follows:

1. Caleb Saville reported that the city engineering department had approved a new layout for Broad Street extension and that it specifically avoided the proposed location for Hartford Fire’s new office building.
2. Whitney Palache and Lucius Robinson offered $20,000 to purchase reservoir property, and they submitted the following figures to support their offer:
• an appraiser had determined the value of the property to be $65,000;
• they estimated that leveling the property off would cost $95,000 to level off the property, but they then changed that figure to between $75,000 to $80,000; and
• consequently $20,000 was far more than the land was worth.
3. Benedict Holden introduced two motions re disposition of reservoir property: the first, to abandon the reservoir and to sell the property to the highest bidder, and the second, to accept the offer from the Hartford Fire Insurance Company.
4. Holden argued with Frank E. Howard, with Howard pressing that the motions were out of order because Arthur J. McManus was not present.
5. The commission voted to table Holden’s motions until the next meeting.
6. Commissioners asked Saville for a report on the reservoir and an expression of his opinion on the matter

There were several other matters before the board at this meeting:

1. The board discussed letter from George C. Bishop, who was opposed to raising salaries for Saville and Fred Berry, the secretary of the board. Holden looked up city ordinance to which Bishop had referred in his letter, which was an ordinance on removing public officers found guilty of corrupt practice, and he declared that Bishop’s letter was an insult.  After some debate, the board decided to return the letter as “not received.”
2. Howard, Holden, and Saville were appointed members of a committee to confer on whether the water board should distribute and sell ice.
3. West End residents protested rule requiring first builders on a new street to pay for piping: they wanted the cost to be shared by all builders.
4. The board discussed a letter from a Massachusetts manufacturer of lead piping that declared Hartford was the only city in the east that used iron pipes. Saville explained that the city had not yet determined how city water would act on lead pipes.
5. Purcell and Holden had bought themselves badges, which hadn’t been authorized by the board – but the board went ahead and covered their cost anyway. They also noted that whoever had made the badges had gotten Purcell’s middle initial wrong.

1. The special meeting was called for “next Tuesday evening,” which probably meant August 12, 1919. August 4, 1919 was a Monday, but had the meeting been on Tuesday, August 5, 1919, the article likely would have said “tomorrow evening.”  Obviously, I’m still looking for an article about that meeting!
2. It appears that the appraised value of $65,000 was the value after the reservoir had been leveled off: “As realty appraisers engaged by the company valued the land at $65,000, after it has been levelled off, they said that the $20,000 payment would make the property, which is 737 feet on Garden street, considerably more expensive than its value warrants.”  From Palache and Robinson’s perspective, that would mean that the company would spend between $85,000 and $115,000 on the purchase and improvement on the property, if the city accepted their offer.
3. Frank Howard was described at the “former president” of the water board.
4. It’s not clear why Frank Howard thought Arthur McManus had to be present for this matter to move forward.

The Hartford Fire Insurance Company had expressed a willingness to purchase at least part of the reservoir property on June 11, 1919.

Although some controversy over this issue would follow, the water board would offer the reservoir property to Hartford Fire on September 25, 1919.

The article referred to Hartford Fire as “the Hartford.”  This is one of the earliest references to the company that I’ve seen that calls it by its modern name.  More typically, the company was called “the two Hartfords,” which referred to Hartford Fire and Hartford Accident and Indemnity.

“Commissioner Holden engaged in an oral clash with former President Frank E. Howard over the two motions introduced providing for immediate action on the sale.”

1. Whitney Palache was vice president of Hartford Fire.
2. Lucius P. Robinson was counsel for Hartford Fire.
3. Caleb Saville was superintendent of the water department and an engineer.

Unattributed, “Hartford Fire offers $20,000 for reservoir,” Hartford Courant, August 5, 1919, page 7.