The preservation of 291 historic buildings in Hartford's West End North

A walk through the West End North shows a neighborhood that managed to dodge the wrecking ball. While many urban areas lost their architectural soul to modernization, this district preserved a collection of 291 historically significant buildings, many of them great examples of Colonial Revival and Queen Anne styles.

Before the 1870s, this land was mostly farm country. That changed when businessmen like Eugene Kenyon and Sylvanus Cone decided to plat the area for residential use. Development was actually pretty slow at first because the 1870s were a shaky time for money, but things really took off in the 1880s. That is when a string of handsome Queen Anne Victorians started popping up along Girard Avenue.

The real boom hit in the first decade of the 20th century. Construction shifted toward Colonial Revival houses targeted at middle to upper-class residents working in downtown Hartford.

Today, you can still find these 120 acres of history. The district stays bounded by the Park River to the east and Farmington Avenue to the south, keeping its 19th-century vibe intact while the rest of the world kept moving.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons