Dan Antion

New Old Doors

Welcome to Thursday Doors! This is a weekly challenge for people who love doors and architecture to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos, drawings, or other images or stories from around the world. If you’d like to join us, simply create your own Thursday Doors post each (or any) week and then share a link to your post in the comments below, anytime between 12:01 am Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time). If you like, you can add our badge to your post.

I was planning to feature a church, perhaps two churches from my visit to Pittsburgh this summer, but those need to wait. I was in Hartford, Connecticut early Tuesday morning. It was raining and quite foggy. I had to exit the highway to avoid traffic, and I saw the buildings in the commercial sector shrouded in fog. I decided to snag some photos.

Some of these buildings have been featured before, but I am offering a new view (hence the title). The descriptions are in the captions. Some may be too long to be displayed, so you may need to click on the little “i” in the circle to display the whole caption.

Many others will be adding links to Thursday Doors in the comment section. I hope you will take te time to visit a few. I will, of course, post a recap of all the doors on Sunday.

The Russell Restaurant is on the first floor of an old commercial facility that has been transformed to apartments.
The Russell Restaurant
Apartments. I like that they kept the original doors when they renovated the building.
Old doors – new life – Also on Allyn Street
Union Station. Served by AMTRAK and CTRail
Recently renovated entrance to Union Station
The corner door is the entrance to where my barber worked about 25 years ago.
You have to look behind the leaves and the fog, but there’s a carousel back there.
You can’t see the door but Ilike the details in the brick work.
I featured this building, The Lindon a few months ago.
I think these are law offices today.
This is a building you will see again. It anchors the Elm Street Historic District. It was the home of “Little Aetna” a life insurance company not to be confused with Aetna Life and Casualty.
I included this door years ago. This was Hartford’s first electrical generating station
Old doors. New apartments
There’s a welcoming sign
At the other end of the building with the Tavern. This entrance has the original doors.

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109 comments

  4. Hi Dan – these look like the weather we’ve got here today … gloomy! But always interesting to see the city/town in a different light – cheers Hilary

    Liked by 1 person

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  5. I am glad you decided to take this detour, Dan
    The glow of street lights in the twilight is so festive! Feels like Christmas is just around the corner ;)

    I like the glass roof raised above the 179 Allyn. It allows one to still admire the beautiful brick work framing the doors.

    a happy end to October to you and all!

    Liked by 1 person

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    • There is a section at the edge of the city, before what is considered the south end, where several old homes and buildings have been preserved and repurposed. I only recently discovered this street, after driving by it for 40 years.

      I love the building you found for your mum.

      Liked by 1 person

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    • I often have to ask myself, “what day is it?” Not to worry. I captured the URL for the recap when I saw it. I figured you were going to be busy today. I hope the pain of raking ends soon.

      Like

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  15. I love the way the distorted street lighting at your former barbershop looks like three airplanes coming in for a landing!

    The “tavern” sign is great! Very clever.

    The red/white brickwork on 179 Allyn is eye catching. Never saw a glass roof over an entrance before. Neat!

    The building that houses the Russell Restaurant and now also apartments is a tribute to the town for repurposing this property instead of letting it decay.

    Nice detour Dan.
    Ginger

    Liked by 1 person

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    • Thanks Teagan. I was struck by the ways these doors looked in the fog and low light. I missed a couple, as they were blurry, but I like the ones I got.

      Your post is fun and interesting. I love when Thursday Doors can help promote an author (or two).

      Liked by 1 person

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  26. The old buildings that are transformed into apartments…I think those must be the prettiest places to live. The detail in the brickwork is wonderful. I guess now it would be too time-consuming and/or cost prohibitive. Such a shame.

    Liked by 1 person

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    • From what I heard on This Old House, even houses and most commercial buildings that appear to be brick today, are brick veneers applied of ordinary structural sheathing. Building with actual bricks is generally too expensive. I think that’s sad.

      Liked by 1 person

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      • What??! Fake brick? That is sad.
        Veneer…did you every watch ‘Frasier’? One episode, Frasier, brother Niles and dad Martin are watching ‘Antique Roadshow.’ Every time someone on the show said ‘veneer’, they would take shots. They were plastered by the time the show was over. So funny.

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    • I was able to find a small amount of history on 179 Allyn but not much. I know the original terracotta was featured in a catalog by the supplier, and that it suffered through some poor renovations prior to a fine renovation when transformed from commercial to residential use. The current property manager gets very low mars (1 star at best) according to tenant reviews.

      I liked your tour of Mansfield, OH

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  28. Hi Dan,
    I enjoyed the change of scenery. I’ve been locked away lately doing my research and also putting some photo books together for my Mum. She is developing dementia and seems to be losing the links in things. The covid lockdowns and my parents ongoing isolation has had a big impact unfortunately and I’m hoping these photo books will help.
    Hope you have a great weekend.
    Best wishes,
    Rowena

    Liked by 1 person

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  29. I like old doors with new life too. The Train Station’s new front is so festive feeling with the colorful banner it would be a great starting off point for a vacation.

    I loved all the brick, and that tree! I love the orange and its shape is perfect.

    Liked by 1 person

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    • The old brick buildings around here are my favorites. Most were built in the late 19th and early 20th century. Several of these are in the area of the train station. They closed the station (to passenger traffic) this summer for about two month. They rebuilt the walkways and platforms. Now that there’s commuter line traffic, they decided to make it a nicer place to board.

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  34. Oh yes, the Tavern, and all the happy white and red bricks, and the autumn colours.

    On my blog with today’s post the new door series begins featuring Ischia di Castro and a cat who didn’t judge from one month ago. I love towns that don’t care whether you’ll stop or not. There must be thousands of such towns in Italy but on that day this one was ours. https://manjameximexcessive6.wordpress.com/2022/10/27/thursday-doors-27-10-22-ischia-di-castro-1/#Ischia-di-Castro#Lazio#cat

    Liked by 1 person

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  36. Those doors are at opposite ends of the same building, and it is in a spooky section of town, in back of and near the service entrance to the Civic Center Arena. I enjoyed your post today.

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  37. Corner doors are always exceptional. The surrounding bricks design of the doors at Russel Restaurant look very Moorish, perhaps Mediterranean food would fit the exterior design better than the Caribbean food.

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    • Corner doors and angled corners on buildings always seem more inviting, Brenda. I could include the Linden every week, I really like that building.

      Your photos are beautiful!

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    • I’m glad you liked these. The train station looks much better. They had closed it to passenger (train) traffic for about 6 weeks to repair and update the tracks and platforms. It looks like they did some painting an repairs throughout.

      Liked by 1 person

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  53. Oh wow… so many wonderful buildings and doors! I too love the decorative brick designs. That building would be blah without them. Wonder who decides to put the design into the brickwork. I’ve seen homes that have really intricate designs built into the outer wall of the chimney. Very cool.

    Liked by 1 person

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  54. Love the fog! The Russell Restaurant and building are lovely. There’s something about the building that makes me feel good. If the Lindon corner building removed the balconies on each level of the corner, it would be perfect. Gee, I sound like a snob. Ya gotta love the Tavern.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

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