Historical: 1978 Hartford Civic Center roof collapse

35 years ago, on January 18, 1978, the roof of the Civic Center in Hartford, Connecticut collapsed under the weight of snow and ice from a 10-day storm, and fell into the arena below. There were no people inside, so no injuries. But 5 hours before the collapse, about 5,000 people were attending a college basketball game in the Center. I call that a near miss of an unimaginable disaster.

The next Sunday, 4 days after the collapse, I was on the top level of the parking garage across the street taking pictures. I used my 35mm all-manual SLR with 50mm and 135mm lenses. The pictures are nothing to be proud of (I hope I've gotten better since then). I scanned my negatives and cleaned them up a little, and here are 6 of the less awful ones.

Downtown Hartford, January 22, 1978. Looking southeast from the top of the parking garage.

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Excellent documentation of the damage. Amazing what forces piled up snow can have on a building...

Very cool pics. Someone was just telling me recently about that, I've lived in CT for 24 years and never knew about that

Thanks.

I didn't remember much about it, then I came across my old prints. I asked my Dad - he worked for the city at the time and was called in that night by the emergency dispatcher. He remembers it well. In contrast to the news reports, he says there were actually 3 people inside when it collapsed. Two restaurant workers were asleep in the restaurant, and an office work slept over in her office rather than drive home in the snow. That must have been quite a waking-up for them.