Then and Now, Mar. 5, 2025

Liberty Street didn’t always stretch from Main Street to College Street. In the 1850s Liberty Street only connected Main Street with Loomis Street. The later development of “East Liberty Street” to Hubbard Street is shown in this photo from 1880. The big white double house in the modern photo was built in 1872, and the tan Italianate house followed in 1880. The big green house, built in 1860 and hidden in the historic picture, was an early arrival, perhaps explaining why it is not oriented toward the street, which had not yet been built. Interestingly, the front door of the older house (built in 1830) in the lower right-hand corner of the historic photo, now known as 31 Liberty Street, is visible because the house was accessed from Hubbard Street at this time. The front door of the house was reoriented to the other side of the house as “Liberty Street Extension” gradually made its way up the hill to College Street.