What Was That Thing: Butt Ugly Building

As I push myself along the Hartford learning curve (I've lived here a few months short of a year now, so my lack of knowledge is less cute than it may once have been) one thing I knew I had to find out was what everyone was referring to when they referenced the Butt Ugly building.

Initially I felt sure it was the precariously balanced rectangular office building at Main and Church Streets; what could be uglier than that thing, except its even uglier New Haven cousin? Then one day I realized that the Butt Ugly building was no more. It was so ugly it had been torn down before I got a chance to see it.

A little research revealed the slightly disappointing truth: the building was never really ugly at all. Its real name was the H.B. Davis building, for the department store that once inhabited it. (You can see photos of it on the blog "The Backside of America.") Even in its final days, the H.B. Davis building wasn't so much ugly as it was dilapidated, and in the prime of its life it must have looked quite nice, or at least inoffensive.

But as the buildings around it disappeared, and it remained unused and unmaintained, it came to represent an ugly sort of landscape, an empty scratch mark through what should have been a vital city. It was also associated a different sort of ugliness: the political corruption scandals of former Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez.

Finally, in 2010, it was time for the Butt Ugly building to go. Sad City Hartford has pictures and video of the demolition. The lot where it stood is now a parking lot, pictured above. (I think. If that's not the right parking lot, it's close enough.) This part of Hartford, just north of Downtown ("DoNo", if you prefer) is the neighborhood currently embroiled in Rock Cats stadium controversy. If the area is eventually developed, the Butt Ugly building's footprint could potentially become a restaurant and brewery. Or perhaps a nicer parking lot.