Property owners up in arms over planned widening of Asylum Avenue

1. The Courant article states that the widening project had been proposed by C Del Alton, Jr. “last winter” as part of a package of street improvements and that the Hartford Board of Street Commissioners had adopted the proposal shortly after that.
2. The reported that it was “said yesterday that after the widening it was possible that the Connecticut Company might double track that portion of the street which at present is a narrow thoroughfare.”
3. The Courant noted that the 28 property owners included property owners from the south side of Asylum Avenue, “although only the north side is to be affected by the project.”

From Mary Woodward’s letter, quoted by the article:  “To those of us who have tried for years to improve and better the appearance of the avenue by planting trees, etc., your proposal comes as a rude shock.  By our efforts the avenue from Garden to Sumner streets, with its arch of trees, is distinctively attractive.  Your plan involves the sacrificing of all these trees that represent many years of growth and cannot be replaced.  Such a sacrifice of trees and lawns is needless and as a taxpayer, who has always gladly contributed toward any civic improvement, I protest.  The widening of our avenue is wholly unnecessary, as our trolley service is at infrequent intervals with a possibility of suspension.  Should your proposal be effected in this period of a maximum costs and a minimum labor efficiency, Asylum avenue would be ruined as a residential section and according to the laws that govern city growth it cannot become a commercial merchandise section.  I earnestly urge you who are charged with the responsibility of making such a vital decision to do nothing that the city will regret.”

“Asylum avenue residents and taxpayers are up in arms over the plan of the board of street commissioners to widen the street by cutting off from eight to sixteen feet of the spacious front lawns on the north side between Garden street and Sumner street.”

1. The Church of the Redeemer, also known as the First Universalist Society, was located at the southeast corner of Hartford Fire’s property. It would be demolished to make way for the Broad Street Extension.
2. DeL. Alton Jr. was the acting president of the Hartford Board of Aldermen.
3. Mary S. Woodward lived at 742 Asylum Avenue, which would be four doors down from the Hartford Fire Insurance Company’s new building. Today that would be roughly halfway between that building and Sumner Street, now part of the campus of The Hartford.

Unattributed, “Many protests against widening Asylum Avenue,” Hartford Courant, September 19, 1920, page 4.