Hartford's 1850s Lewis Street Block

Lewis Street started as a mere alley. The city widened it in 1841 and named it Wells Street. In 1883, it was renamed Lewis Street in honor of Lewis Rowell, its principal landowner.

The Lewis Street Block is a historic district encompassing the Southern half of Lewis Street in Downtown Hartford. It is the only surviving example of this type of mid-to-late 19th-century streetscape in the area. While the Northern End near Pearl Street is taken over by modern development, the Southern half preserves a streetscape reminiscent of a mid-19th century city street.

Three houses from the 1850s line the west side. Rowell built them, one of them as his personal residence. Now they house commercial office space. Three more brick houses sit on the east side, possibly built by Austin Daniels.

A 1908 Georgian Revival building stands nearby to house the church offices of the adjacent First Church of Christ. These buildings are all owned by either the church or by Hartford's University Club.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons