Postcards from Hartford

The 'Old Folks Home,' also known as the "Old People's Home," was built on Jefferson Street in 1884, across the street from Hartford Hospital. In newspapers of the period, residents were often referred to as "inmates." Maybe the word had a different meaning back then.

Hartford Hospital was operating the home as Jefferson House in the early 1960s, when it decided to raze the building so it could build a new home for its nursing school. The 75 people still living there were moved to other Hartford Hospital facilities. The nursing school campus opened amid much fanfare in 1967 but closed less than 10 years later, as nurses increasingly found they needed bachelor's degrees. The complex has seen several uses since then, including a stint in the 1980s as University of Hartford dormitories.