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The Christmas lights on Constitution Plaza was a special treat to visit at night with my Dad when I was a young boy. What great memories!

To this day i will walk by the 2 sided building across from State Street and Channel 3 WFSB.

I was born in "68", I remember the seventies, eighties, ect...

My grandfather was a civil engineer for the state of CT in the 1960s. He was a horrible person on his own. But now knowing he also had a hand in destroying Hartford... I have such distain for him.

when no one has the courage to admit the truth head on and face it, we end up where we are now. The issue is race.

First time I saw Hartford was 10 years after this video was made. I was nine. Hartford looks nothing like that now. It is a shame to realize what we were and what we are now. Connecticut was a top state back then. Now it is a joke.

“How I wish I knew then what I know now.”

Is the stilt/boat building older than the gold building? Don't know why I was surprised

Hartford , CT is a Shithole 3rd world city. Run by Hispanic gangs. i wouldnt ask my worst enemy to go there.

I am pretty sure that red headed girl is me. I was 7. Where did you get this footage?

Beautiful

They missed the American Industrial Building opposite G. Fox.

Where was the Society for Savings located? Loved the old, glitzy every-man bank! Even as kids we had a passbook with interest. Bring 'em back!

I was a teen at time and Downtown Hartford was a thriving location. Charm and many businesses. Westfarms Mall came in and eventually erased retail from Hartford. Too bad, the stores had a lot of charm in 1964.

so much cleaner and well kept, now woke sh*t hole , no on gives a sh*t

Color footage from 1964 seems rare to me.

Thanks for posting

I was 13 when this was taken and I lived in Newington. Recall taking the bus to Hartford to shop for clothes. I saved up my paper route money and bought a new 3 speed English bike downtown and rode it back home. Rode it to school the next day and somebody stole it!

With Dreg that is the infield to the racetrack at the state fair. The fiesta was held for three years there 73,74 & 75 but it was in Feb not Oct like now. That is very interesting thought by Dreg as ya I think it is 1974 also because that roadrunner balloon was not at the 1973 fiesta

Definitely the NM State Fairgrounds, and I'm pretty certain it's 1974.

Hartford is a great city period, we need to bring the jobs back so kids are unlikely to join gangs and do crime due to inflation and the lack of opportunities

those Krackers knew how to have a good time!

Hmm, i lived in Harrford in 1971, and thought some modern-looking building i saw while living there weren't so old. (They appear in this 1964 video.)

wow 3:14 the road on the right is gone. Now a walkway

I'm from east Hartford and I spent a lot of time at the river on the East Hartford south side. The view across the river to Hartford brings back a lot of memories. There was an oil company tank farm along the East Hartford bank and I used to watch the ships dock there to transfer the oil to the tanks. When there wasn't river traffic I hung around on the docks. I My family moved to the central downtown area of East Hartford when I was in high school and downtown Hartford was a short walk along Connecticut Blvd across the Buckley Bridge (can't do that these days). I remember singing in the choir at the Greater Hartford Council of Churches Easter sunrise service on Constitution Plaza, broadcast live by channel 3. I don't remember what year that was. The bookstore on the plaza was the closest "real" bookstore within walking distance from downtown East Hartford.

How I wish I knew then, what I know now.

I live in Constitution Plaza in what was the Royal Sonesta Back then. Building still looks the same today!!

This is wonderful thanks so much for sharing! Can I ask how you got this footage and if you have any more of the Greater Hartford area? Thanks!

Before the trash that lives there now ruined it with welfare

Great footage of history… I think there should have been a caption describing each building

Wish I can go back in time miss those days 😥😥😥

Great video. Born in Hartford, in 1956 and is still nearby. Went to Brackett K-8, then Price Tech. P&W 1975 until 2018. Yes, Hartford is my home.

Even in the early 80s, Hartford was good. The Italian parade on Franklin Ave was great. GFox Downtown during Christmas was great. But last time I visited home it was sad; tons of out of state license plates, but the growth does not seem to be from economic growth but instead of looters coming into the state. I dunno, maybe it’s fine 🤷‍♂️

I love the cars

It is remained me thend bird moovie of the sixties woow

I came back to this video to show a friend. Whoever took it had a keen eye for juxtaposition, and took short pauses so that you could appreciate the clean, sharp lines and landscape of places like Constitution Plaza, the new Travelers entry plaza, St. Joseph's and the old Statler Hilton, and there's a few moments where there is a focus on the construction of I-84 as it's cutting across Asylum Hill, and the old Lowes Poli Theater block, just before it was torn down for Bushnell Plaza condos. The last few seconds also shows the Market and Talcott Street entrances into the G.Fox store...which was the bargain basement section until you went up two floors to the Main floor on Main St. Few people today appreciate how different Hartford and Connecticut was then. Hartford was still the big city center and commercial hub. The department stores...G.Fox, Sage's, Korvette's and a couple of hundred other stores were the big public draw, week in and week out, along with theaters, restaurants and Id guess about half of the employment was in manufacturing and the other was in white-collar jobs, and most factories ran two or three shifts. The cost of living was also not gamed the way it is today and you could get a decent paying job without a college degree. Life was slower....but a LOT less hectic too. There also wasn't the sprawl across all the towns around it that there is today, with endless big box centers and malls, so many more people went to downtown Hartford just to window shop and browse. This was an entire decade before Westfarms opened, and that sprawl took decades to build. However, a good part of the city also felt old and run-down in many sections....from years of neglect and disinvestment, since there had been little construction since before WWII and the depression. The scale and size of Constitution Plaza..which was brand new and fully opened in '64... was later criticized as being cold and lifeless, was actually a huge investment into the city. $40 million dollars then is close to $400 million now...and it had some of the best quality construction and designers of their times working on it. The big reason it never did well, was it was supposed to have a few hundred apartments attached to it....where the science center and CT state office buildings are now...overlooking the river, and the plaza level was to be connected by bridges up over Market Street...up to Main Street and the department stores and shops. Had they done that...the city would've looked different and maybe a bit more vibrant, even with the stores gone now.

Wow everything looked so nice and clean.

Thanks for the Upload 👍 !! XD

Old memories

I remember Mary Hooker school. The Hawes. Williams. Davis.

Looks like Constitution Plaza is in there. My mother was pregnant with me at the time of this filming.

I love my city, I was born in 1976, great video

Wow the Connecticut river was actually blue

I was 8. I could have been in that footage - in a car or in the park. Such a simple time. G Fox at Christmas was something else.

Holy crap the water used to be blue!?

This is spectacular. I was born in '64....had a love of architecture, department stores and modern buildings. Grew up in Central CT and spent a lot of my teen years taking the bus to downtown Hartford. When G Fox, Sage-Allen, the Civic Center Mall were all there, and Constitution Plaza was still in almost pristine condition, just before Traveler's sold it off to a series of awful owners who've slowly destroyed the complex with decades of neglect and bad alterations. The stores long-ago folded and merged away...and downtown...although with more residences than ever, feels emptier and sad. I was seeing the twilight of the last era of a city that had come to the end of it's life a dominant commercial center...and is still transitioning...but into what?

Too much of constipation plaza which always seemed so cold and empty. Still 64 was the last full year I spent there before going off to college (Weaver 65 I am) and coming home summers, and then off to the world. I liked the tripple deckers at the start and the North end shots. Hope there is more somewhere

Woooow! This was so good to see how many things have changed since and what hasnt change one bit lol. I wasnt born during this time but my brother was. He and my mom will enjoy this. Thank u for sharing!

I don’t know why. But at era in time right there is where I belong! I am fascinated. Things were so different then! Simple…Nothing like today! I was not even alive yet when this was filmed. Thank you for sharing how Hartford looked back then compared to now!

Thanks so much for this video! Great to see these places in Hartford as they were in 1964. I was 2 y.o. I never knew the Phoenix building was even built by then! Good memories. Glad you added the music.