Portraits of a gritty New England neighborhood and its people, with accompanying photos, reflecting waves of immigrants and tides of American history.
Frog Hollow: Stories from an American Neighborhood is a collection of colorful historical vignettes of an ethnically diverse neighborhood just west of the Connecticut State Capitol in Hartford. Its 1850s row houses have been home to a wide variety of immigrants. During the Revolutionary War, Frog Hollow was a progressive hub, and later, in the mid-late nineteenth century, it was a hotbed of industry. Reporter Susan Campbell tells the true stories of Frog Hollow with a primary focus on the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: the inventors, entrepreneurs and workers, as well as the impact of African American migration to Hartford, the impact of the Civil Rights movement and the continuing fight for housing.
Frog Hollow was also one of the first neighborhoods in the country to experiment with successful urban planning models, including public parks and free education. From European colonists to Irish and Haitian immigrants to Puerto Ricans, these stories of Frog Hollow show the multiple realities that make up a dynamic urban neighborhood. At the same time, they reflect the changing faces of American cities.
"Goes into great detail about the misfortunes, the corporate decisions and the governmental missteps that contributed to bringing Frog Hollow low. But despite a sometimes sorrowful tone, the book ends on a hopeful note." - Hartford Courant

Susan Campbell

Author's Note- In Which the Author Explains: Why Write a Book? . Introduction- In Which the Author Explains: Why Frog Hollow? . Chapter 1: The Difficult Dream-The Babcocks Dig a Well and Launch a Newspaper . Chapter 2: An Opportunity for Each-Colonel Pope Comes to Town and Helps Build an Industrial Powerhouse . Chapter 3: A Dream of Social Order- The Government Segregates a Neighborhood . Chapter 4: The Fullest Stature- Original Residents Are Pushed Out, the Neighborhood Gets a Reputation - And Everyone Is Baseball Crazy . Chapter 5: To Be Recognized- The Children of Frog Hollow Find Champions, and the Newsies Fight Back . Chapter 6: Each Man and Woman- The Reverend Pennington Is Free . Chapter 7: Growing Weary and Mistrustful- The Neighborhood Gets an Orphanage . Chapter 8: They are Innately Capable- Dominick Burns Opens a Bank, and Maria Sánchez Shepherds a Political Force . Chapter 9: Regardless of Fortuitous Circumstances- The Ghosts That Walk Frog Hollow's Streets, and Where They're Heading . Notes