Progress on the new building for Hartford Fire

1. Once the excavation of the foundation was completed, the steam shovels would be used to remove the embankments around the Garden Street Reservoir.
2. The dirt from the embankments will be used to fill the low acreage at the rear of the site of the new building.

1. Work was predicted to begin in the next few months on October 8, 1919.
2. A fall start date for construction was predicted on May 14, 1919 and September 29, 1919.

Apparently, the excavation work also required blasting as the winter progressed.

1. The final design for the building, the foundation for which was now being dug, was approved by December 21, 1919.
2. The Courant would provide an update on construction on May 24, 1920.

The American School for the Deaf has in its archives a photo of the excavation underway, and one of the steam shovels can be seen in the photo.

The reporter had visited the construction site, and he was quite taken with the steam shovels:

• “Already a great deal of dirt and debris has been carted away, and it is worth a trip to the scene of activity to watch the incessant attack of the two steam shovels.”
• “Hardly pausing, it stretches out its long steel arm, and with the powerful impetus of the steam behind it, and the nonchalance of a policeman’s raid on a peanut stand, scoops up a wagon-load of dirt and boulders in one swoop.”
• “The operator of the new shovel is from the Ball Engine Company who manufactured it, and he considers his job an ‘art.’ With both hands and both feet working simultaneously, the organ player has nothing on him.  He has to use his head, too, and many an ‘artist’ would undoubtedly be glad to exchange envelopes with him on pay day.”
• “The use of steam shovels is possible all through the winter, frozen ground having no terrors for the heavily armored steam driven implements.”

Unattributed, “Make headway on site for Hartford Fire’s new home,” Hartford Courant, November 21, 1919, page 12.