Construction on El Mercado began in 1976, funded through a series of grants from the state. The Broad-Park Development Corporation spearheaded the project. El Mercado was preceded by other development around Park Street, making room for several new businesses. The building replaced a vacant lot. A local merchant's association expressed doubt about the project, insisting that the area had enough food stores as is, but together with the Broad-Park Development Corporation, they managed to come to compromises.El Mercado is a way for people to connect to their cultures. For example, artist Constanza Segovia speaks of how seeing Argentinian foods for sale at El Mercado helped create a connection between her as an Argentinian and the wider city of Hartford.

The front entrance to El Mercado - busy even on a Sunday morning!

El Mercado is a grocery store and marketplace selling produce, herbs, spices, and more. Many of these ingredients are foods that you won't find at the average Stop and Shop. In addition to being a supermarket, there is a food court with four different restaurants inside the building. These include El Tepeyac, a Mexican restaurant, Antojitos Colombianos, which serves Colombian food, El Gran Dominicano, both Dominican and Puerto Rican, and a Peruvian restaurant, Autentico Sabor Peruano.

El Mercado

The first version of the Park Library opened in 1928 on Park Street. In 1939, it moved to Broad Street, until 1975 when it moved back to Park Street. Finally, in the fall of 2021, the library took up residence at the site of the Lyric Theater, which was an old theater and film house that opened almost one hundred years ago in 1923. The historic building was unfortunately demolished, but architects incorporated features of the Lyric within the library, including reproductions of murals inside the theater. The branch's upgrade has been a long time coming; for over 25 years, Frog Hollow residents have advocated for an expansion. For the Park Street Library @ The Lyric to exist as it does today is a resounding victory for (and by!) the community.

The Park Street Library @ The Lyric is the largest of the seven Hartford Public Library branches. It provides all the services that a typical library would: internet access, printing, and of course, checking out books. Graciela Rivera is the current manager of the Park Street library branch, and she played a pivotal role in its opening.

The Park Street Library @ The Lyric

La Biblioteca de la Park abrió sus puertas por primera vez en 1928. En 1939, se mudó a la calle Broad y regresó a la calle Park en 1975. Finalmente, en el otoño del 2021, la biblioteca encontró su hogar permanente en el viejo sitio del Lyric Theater—un teatro y cine que había operado desde 1923 hasta su abandono en los años 70. Desafortunadamente, el edificio histórico fue demolido, pero los arquitectos de la biblioteca lograron incorporar detalles del Lyric. Por ejemplo, la biblioteca incluye réplicas de murales que habían estado dentro del teatro. La renovación de la sucursal viene después de un largo retraso: por más de 25 años, los residentes de Frog Hollow han abogado por una expansión. La existencia de la Biblioteca de la Park hoy  es una gran victoria para (¡y de!) la comunidad.

La Biblioteca de la Park es la más grande de las siete sucursales que constituyen Hartford Public Library. Los visitantes pueden disfrutar de todos los servicios que una biblioteca típica ofrece: acceso al internet, impresoras, y claro, sacar libros. Actualmente, Graciela Rivera es la directora de la sucursal de la calle de Park, y ocupó un papel destacado en su apertura.

La Biblioteca de la Park

Pacheco primarily works in sculpture, so this is a unique example of his work. He grew up in Hartford, but now lives and works in Worcester, MA.Lindaluz Carillo: "The AIDS epidemic. Yeah, it was affecting a lot of cultures, you know? It wasn't just one particular. And I think the stereotype was that 'Oh, this specific group of people,' you know, 'queer, gay, trans', but it did impact a lot of people, people from different cultures, so I think it's just building awareness of that. It's not just one group."

Victor Pacheco created this mural in 1997. It is painted on the side of the Caribe Auto Supply building and depicts the word "AIDS" in large block letters next to the flags of a variety of countries from across the globe and the faces of different people. The note in the bottom left hand corner of the mural reads "Dedicated to those struggling with HIV or AIDS". The piece challenges stereotypes about HIV/AIDS, asserting that anyone can be affected by the disease regardless of their identity.

AIDS

The first Park Street Festival was held in 1977 on Sunday, June 5th. It was organized by the Hartford Areas Rally Together coalition. The festival always had a cultural component which changed along with the changing demographic of the neighborhood: from French-Canadian, to Portuguese, to Puerto Rican, and more. The basics of the festival looked much the same throughout the years, but its scale grew leading into the eighties. Unfortunately, in the four years leading up to its cancellation in 1990, the festival stood on an unsteady financial foundation. The Park Street Festival lives on today in its influence on Hartford's Puerto Rican Festival.

The Park Street Festival was designed to celebrate Frog Hollow and its residents, but it attracted all sorts of people: it could be expected to draw in over 20,000 guests. The whole two miles of Park Street would be dedicated to vendors, performers, and more. For example, here, at the intersection of Lawrence and Park Street, stood one of the two stages on which bands entertained guests at the Park Street Festival of 1986. The festival ended by the 1990s.

Park Street Festival

Lindaluz Carillo: "It's like, I wanted to do something that represented hope because I felt like during the beginning of COVID, a lot of turmoil, people were just, you know, dying, and dealing with a lot of suffering, emotional, physical, you know. Whether you had COVID or had family members that experienced it, you know, very traumatic time. So I thought that this, you know, kind of fit the aesthetic. And then Mina, you know, she ended up doing these hands that kind of look like wings, so you can actually stand there, right? And then just take a picture."

This mural was a collaboration between Lindaluz Carillo and Mina Ellis. They created the piece at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The words read "Hoy miro hacia el futuro", or, "Today I look forward to the future", and they are from salsa musician Frankie Ruiz's song "Esta Vez Sí Voy Pa' Encima". The artists wanted to present a message of hope amidst the confusion and fear of the pandemic. The artwork can be read as both outstretched hands and wings.

Hoy Miro Hacia El Futuro

The "Love Your Block" Program provided the City of Hartford with a $1,000 grant in order to create The Art Box Lot. The project began in April 2019 with communicating with the residents of Frog Hollow about what they would like to see in such a space. Many community members even helped construct the lot, building garden boxes and installing benches. Lindaluz Carrillo and Mina Elise created the first mural which has since been painted over. New murals are being installed all the time, with the most recent one painted in April 2022 as part of the Trinity International Hip Hop Festival.

The Art Box Lot occupies a formerly vacant lot on Park Street. The space features a community garden, a projector wall for film screenings, and most notably, several large murals. Each of the murals have been designed by local artists and they celebrate the history and diversity of Frog Hollow. The Art Box Lot also frequently collaborates with nonprofits and other organizations to hold events.

The Art Box Lot

Lindaluz Carillo: "This mural used to be on Park and Main at one point, but once it started building out the apartment, you know, they had to find a new location. This was that, which actually works a lot better, I think, just because it is closer to what we have already here in the garden. It's a nice addition."

Julie Bergeron created this installation in collaboration with Our Piece of the Pie, which is a local nonprofit aiming to empower youth. The three main panels each depict a stage in food production: first the food is harvested, then it is sold, and finally it is enjoyed! This garden is one of three sites in the Grow Hartford program.

Public Garden

Lindaluz Carillo: "I got in contact with Shiro. She's a graffiti artist, a Japanese graffiti artist, but also has traveled all over the world. At the time she was in New York. I don't know if she's still there. So I had reached out to her via Instagram just to see, you know, if she would be down to come and paint. She said yeah. She came out, you know, we picked her up, and she was here for like a span of two to three days. She did a workshop with, at the Hip Hop Festival with Youth For Change, taught some kids how to do, you know, the basics of graffiti and tagging and all that."Shiro also created two more murals in Hartford for 2022's Trinity International Hip Hop Festival at the Art Box Lot and Heaven Skate Park.

This mural was created by Japanese graffiti artist Shiro. She created the piece with the help of students from the organization Youth for Change, whom she first taught in a workshop how to paint graffiti. The mural only took about half a day to complete, and the artists were so invested that they stayed long after nightfall, with car headlights pointed at the wall to help them see.

Unique Hair Studio

Prior to the mid-1800s, the area now known as Frog Hollow was largely farmland. But it was also home to the Park River which engineers later diverted underground. It was also the location of the newly-constructed railroad which made this area fertile ground for industrial development. Sharps Rifle Company was the first large manufacturer to come to Frog Hollow and was so named because of the marshy areas along the river.&nbsp; Colonel Albert Pope was one of the industrialists who moved into Frog Hollow. Pope Manufacturing--a giant at the time--produced both bicycles and automobiles and created hundreds of jobs in the neighborhood. As increasing numbers of workers went to work each day in Frog Hollow, the neighborhood also underwent a housing boom. Rows of houses were constructed on what was once farmland, and though the styles varied, the area came to be known for one distinct style of architecture--Perfect Sixes. Perfect Sixes were three-story, two-abreast apartment buildings that often featured a bowed front with a recessed entryway. A number of Perfect Sixes still exist in Frog Hollow.&nbsp; As home to much of Hartford's industry, Frog Hollow became a diverse neighborhood that attracted workers of numerous nationalities. The neighborhood's building boom meant that there was affordable housing within walking distance of good jobs, and Irish, Italian, Greek, Swedish, French Canadian, and German immigrants flocked to Frog Hollow. Albert Pope's empire continued to grow and at one point he was reportedly the largest manufacturer of bicycles in the world. He purchased Batholomew Farm, which was near his manufacturing complex, to expand his business and build more than 1,000 homes for his employees. The economic depression of the mid-1890s put an end to Pope's expansion, however, and he donated the land to the city for the creation of a park. The Olmsted brothers, sons of famed landscape designer Frederick Law Olmsted, were hired to plan the park, which consisted of 90.5 acres, By the mid-twentieth century, industry in Hartford began to decline and many of the old factories in Frog Hollow closed or relocated. The neighborhood entered a long period of decline and passed the twentieth century with little in the way of redevelopment. By the late twentieth century, it was one of the poorest neighborhoods in Hartford and far from the desirable district it once was.&nbsp; More recently, however, there have been attempts to revitalize Frog Hollow and to preserve its distinctive Perfect Sixes. The neighborhood was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 and in the early years of the twenty-first century, Friends of Pope Park was formed to help revitalize the park. Some of the historic homes in Frog Hollow have been restored and developers have built new housing that retains the neighborhood's distinctive architecture.&nbsp;

 In the 1800s, the section of Hartford that was popularly known as "Frog Hollow" became the center of the city’s industrial development. The neighborhood was located along the Park River and the railroad which made the area ideally suited for manufacturing. Though many of the factories which made the area a bustling part of Hartford in the late 1800s and early 1900s have long been shuttered, a number of the neighborhood's historic homes remain. The neighborhood is also noteworthy for Pope Park, a 90.5 acre park that began with land donated to the city by Colonel Albert Pope, the industrialist behind Pope Manufacturing. Frog Hollow is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

Pope Park and Frog Hollow 

Prior to its move to its current location on Broad Street, Templo Fe took up tentative residence on Main Street. This was in 1975, when Puerto Ricans in Frog Hollow were a relatively new presence. Many of the existing residents did not want the church to move to Broad Street, citing a predicted increase in traffic and housing costs. Templo Fe members, among others, suspected that the true reason for their disapproval was because the majority of Templo Fe's congregation was, and is, Puerto Rican. City Council accepted the request to move, however, and the church found a new home in what was once an abandoned school, due very much in part to Reverend Ramirez's efforts.

Templo Fe is a church of the Pentecostal denomination founded by Pastor Julie Ramirez. Reverend Roberto Calcaño is the current pastor, who took over as Senior Pastor following Reverend Ramirez's death in 2016. He spent years learning under her guidance prior to this. The church offers services multiple days a week in Spanish. They also have their own radio program which broadcasts every Saturday morning at 9:00 at 100.1 FM.

Frog Hollow Hartford Walking Tour

El Mercado

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources