Letters

Library memories

There was a one-page photo story in the [spring 2024] Trinity Reporter, under the heading “Around Hartford,” about the Park Street Library @ the Lyric, and it brought back a flood of memories.

I grew up in Frog Hollow, on the corner of Russ and Oak Streets, two blocks north of the Lyric Theatre on Park Street and two blocks east of the old yellow brick one-story library with the flagpole on Broad Street just north of Park. The Lyric Theatre Saturday matinee was a favorite, and my mother would walk me over to that library starting at about the age of 5.

In those days, we learned to read in kindergarten at St. Anthony’s School, in Italian in the morning and in English in the afternoons. Then in first grade we transferred to St. Joseph Cathedral School, which was English only! I had a friend here in Denver who, before he died a few years ago, was the superintendent of one of the nearby suburban school districts. He grew up in Frog Hollow, too, a few blocks from the Lyric Theatre, but went to St. Ann School and spoke French in the mornings and English in the afternoons. He read books at that same little library. And there were Lithuanians and Latvians among us, too, and Czechs and Hungarians. And Puerto Ricans who spoke mostly Spanish. And the vegetable market was on the corner of Park and Broad.

So the new library looks great in your photo, with the Lyric Theatre as part of its heritage. Thanks for putting it together!

Dan Strammiello ’64

Denver, Colorado

---

Get in touch! The Trinity Reporter welcomes letters related to items published in recent issues. Please send remarks to the editor at [email protected] or Sonya Storch Adams, Office of Communications and Marketing, Trinity College, 300 Summit Street, Hartford, CT 06106.