Hartford's Lost Castle

This video is about the James Goodwin House, also known as Woodlands and as the Goodwin Castle. Built in 1871, it stood near the intersection of Asylum Avenue and Woodland Street in Hartford, Connecticut. Once the largest private home in the state, it was torn down in 1940.
#Hartford #HartfordCT #MarkTwain
The Chuboda Photographs of the Goodwin Castle are at the Connecticut Historical Society:
emuseum.chs.org...
In the video I also show a c. 1900 photograph of the house, also from the Connecticut Historical Society:
hdl.handle.net/...
There’s also a photograph of the Goodwin Tombstone at Cedar Hill Cemetery from the Connecticut Historical Society: emuseum.chs.org...
The photograph of the Twitchell House (accession number 2022.1.8) is also from the Connecticut Historical Society and is duplicated in Steve Courtney’s books Joseph Hopkins Twichell: The Life and Times of Mark Twain's Closest Friend and Mark Twain’s Hartford.
In the video I show a streoview of the house from the collections of the New York Public Library:
digitalcollect...
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[@michaelmarshall7575]

It is a CRIME that it was TORN down !! Thanks for the upload !!

[@sidneysisk225]

I remember this house because as a boy in the 30's (I am 94) I rode my bike past it many times. The fine architecture of Hartford whisperedi to me to become an Architect which I wanted more than anything else. It seemed so far out of reach since we came from Warehouse Point and lived in a far more modest section of Hartford. In Hartford only because Mom, from a large immigrant family, HAD TO live near them. So we commuted for 40 years to my Dadf's small countrified grocery store. While other kids played baseball and other games, I roamed the streets in my (wonderful) second hand Blue Ivor Johnson Bike (It had wood rims!), looking at buildings and making cardboard models on my old oak desk at home. This house was "scary" to me, abandoned and unfriendly and much unlike the buiildings that I grew to love such as ALL of State Street from Main down to the River which included Ernest Flagg's best building, at least one Classic Bank, two tawdry but fun Theatres, the Wonderful Hartford Courant Building by the Architect______________and furthur down a mix of 18th and 19th masterpieces, if some what worn and torn. The entire history of 18th and 19th century urban Architecture was on disp[lay to say nothing of the main block of Main St. across from the State House. What a loss. I was later able---working as an apprentice architect to observe the greed and ignorance that destoyed a real cityscape. In which people of so-called culture cooperated with bad architects, viscious developers, and dumb politicians to wreck all this. Gone forever .Later, when I did work in Cleveland for a large NYC Company, I saw a similar downtown which for a vartiety of reasons was never ruined.

[@historywithdansterner263]

Thank you so much for sharing that! If something is preserved it can be rehabilitated later, but if they tear it down its gone for good! At least Flagg's facade is still there.

[@raymonddubois9242]

I am so happy to have found this site. What a marvelous treasure has been created. Many thanks...from a new subscriber.

[@historywithdansterner263]

Thank you!

[@alexarobinson2850]

More parks for Hartford! 🎉

[@jackd8602]

Best of the Best!! Thanks Dan.

[@mht5875]

This was very close to where my father's mother lived over on Elizabeth St, very sad this beautiful house was taken down before I was born.

[@kristinehanko6376]

Thanks for sharing the story of the "castle". I am saddened that it was torn down. I did not know that there were so many grand houses on Woodland Street "back in the day". I wish my parents were still here to ask them if they remember it. I love history of Hartford. Thanks again.

[@gailnorck7273]

Yes! Wishing my parents and grandparents could see these wonderful, historical images of Hartford! They were all such a huge part of it. So enjoyable!

[@dandowe1985]

Sad to see such a grand home taken down--purely a financial decision on the part of the Aetna. Have seen the Goodwin parlor at the Wadsworth on many occasions. The house must've been in pretty good shape when it was demolished, given the condition of the parlor's paneling and furniture. Excellent video--the photographs are an amazing documentation of the facade of the house!

[@historywithdansterner263]

Thank you!

[@wendyparis7921]

James L. Goodwin was my great uncle 🥰 Of course, never there but I was at the house on Woodside Circle plenty of times. Also quite grand but the yard was my favorite.

[@terriwilson890]

I love your videos. Keep them coming!

[@darrinvonstein6101]

Rev. Francis Goodwin worked with the British-born, American architect Frederick Clarke Withers for the overall design and planning of the house. In late December 1873 and early January 1874, Francis and his wife Mary were in London and commissioned the architect/designer E. W. Godwin to design an octagonal table as well as a fireplace mantle. Godwin's "Bamboo" patterned wallpaper was also installed in the dining room. It is unknown if the Goodwin's commissioned any other British architects and/or designers during that trip to London. The Goodwin's were very influential with other British architects getting commissions in Hartford.

[@junkandthangs]

another classic video, good to see you stepped away from the Downtown area. Thanks

[@joane.landers9151]

I would suspect that the Goodwin's mentioned in your video, could & perhaps did, trace their ancestry back to William Goodwin, who was one of the first settlers to arrive from the Boston, MA area by sailing up the Connecticut River with others and arriving on the western bank of what would become Hartford in about 1635 (?). William Goodwin was one of my ancestors. It's over 60 years ago when I was doing research at the CT State Library & CT Historical Society for my mother; one of her maternal lines goes back to William Goodwin.

[@victorlopez2143]

Love to hear the history of Hartford and it's houses.. Unreal how Hartford was back then compare to now. It's so different. Thank you for the history lessons. I have viewed other videos about Hartford and it's buildings. I grew up in COT and I wonder how that area was before it was called Charter Oak Terrance.. Just wondering .... :)

[@historywithdansterner263]

I just checked the historic atlases of Hartford and it seems it was undeveloped land before COT. It may have been farmland before that. In the 1920 Sanborn Atlas it's been laid out with streets and building lots, but there are no houses yet. In the 1942 map, Charter Oak Terrace is there with a completely different street layout having replaced the earlier plan.

[@victorlopez2143]

@@historywithdansterner263 Thanks

[@markrichards6863]

Redevelopment in the guise of urban renewal, ruined Hartford. Not enough of the past was preserved. They succeeded in making Hartford look like every other small city, with an uninteresting downtown, which is deserted after six o'clock.

[@historywithdansterner263]

Certain landmarks have been preserved, like the Old State House and the Mark Twain House. Its too bad that the Goodwin Mansion was not one of those.

[@uppastdawn7627]

If I had anything insured by Aetna, I would be canceling the policy in the morning!

[@sedumplant]

Was the artist of the early 1930's James Goodwin McManus related to James Goodwin ?

[@ezinafauda4394]

Disgusting this was lost

[@historywithdansterner263]

Yes, very sad!

[@johnfoster535]

Yes...what a shame to lose such a beautiful creation ! Seems to be the story of Hartford, losing its history and decaying into a third world mess. Hartford possessed such wealth and grandeur...perhaps the wealthiest city in the U.S. at one time. How beautiful and stately was Woodland St, lined with all the trees....now, just a bus ridden road to the ghetto down the street. So much history in Hartford....Union Army General Griffin Steadman from Trinity college and his statue by St. Augustine church....by " Campfield Avenue" where the Union army had its training grounds...not to mention Steadman's grave in the stately and historic Cedar Hill cemetery across from Goodwin Park. I am drawn to this channel because both sides of my family lived in these areas of Hartford, well over 100 years ago, and as a boy,I would visit the home of my father's family which today has a National Register of Historic Places plaque on it.

[@unzipthat]

How does Walter Lippincott Goodwin fit into all this? I currently have an extensive file of pictures of Walter Lippincott Goodwin's Mansion from before and after the devastating fire. Also, wasn't Woodside Circle developed by James Goodwin? and wasn't this James Goodwin brother of Walter? And the land where Walter's Mansion is located given to him by his father?

[@historywithdansterner263]

Walter Lippincott Goodwin was the son of James Junius Goodwin and the nephew of Rev Francis Goodwin. He had a brother James Lippincott Goodwin: www.findagrave.com/memorial/14729843/james-lippincott-goodwin

[@unzipthat]

@@historywithdansterner263 why do we not see anything on Walter's Mansion?

[@historywithdansterner263]

@@unzipthat I'll have to think about that for a future video!