Past Appearances

Virtual Appearances, Publications, Interviews and Awards

• I was a panelist for “West Hartford’s America 250 presents Transitions: What We Gained, What It Cost” (April 30, 2026), which is available on West Hartford Community Interactive‘s YouTube page.

• I launched two Substack newsletters, That’s Historical and Remembering Old Hartford in November, 2024.

• My Zoom presentation “When Hartford Was a Retail Hub: The Growth of the City’s Great Department Stores 1890s-1960s” for the Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum (February 23, 2023) is available on YouTube.

• I was a guest on the Hartbeat podcast, S3E10: “Ye Olde Hartforde” hosted by D-Rock and Allie Kyff (released July 23, 2022).

• I was interviewed by Anne Goshdigian for The Hartford News (June 2-8, 2022), “Golden Oldies.”

• My Zoom presentation “Exploring the History and Architecture of Old Hartford” for the Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum (March 2022) is available on YouTube.

• I launched my YouTube channel History with Dan Sterner on August 4, 2021.

• I was interviewed by Identidad Latina Multimedia for a Talentos Trendy segment (September 20, 2019).

• My article on “Connecticut’s Octagon Houses” appeared in the Winter 2018-2019 issue of Connecticut Explored magazine.

• In the summer of 2013, I appeared on Connecticut Public Radio’s Where We Live program, hosted by John Dankosky. Read about it here: “Sterner ’97 Speaks on NPR about Vanishing Downtown Hartford,” by Natalie Robichaud ’14 (Wesleyan University News, August 28, 2013).

• I was interviewed for an article in the Hartford Courant by Kenneth R. Gosselin, “Revisiting Downtown Hartford’s Lost Architectural Treasures” (July 26, 2013).

• My book A Guide to Historic Hartford, Connecticut won a Hartford Preservation Alliance Award in 2013.

• I was interviewed on WTIC-TV Fox 61 on July 11, 2012.

• My website Historic Buildings of Connecticut (http://historicbuildingsct.com/)won a Hartford Preservation Alliance Award in 2008.

In-Person Tours and Presentations

  • South Windsor CT Senior Center: “Hartford’s Heublein Family,” April 23, 2026
  • South Windsor CT Senior Center: “Mansions of the Manchester CT’s Cheney Family,” March 27, 2026
  • Windsor CT Senior Center: “Hartford at the Holidays,” November 12, 2025
  • Windsor CT Senior Center: “Lost Mansions of Hartford,” October 8, 2025
  • Windsor CT Senior Center: “Department Stores of Hartford,” September 10, 2025
  • 1892 Club, Hartford Golf Club, September 17, 2024
  • State House Square 360 Walking Tour for Connecticut’s Old State House, June 10, 2023
  • Historical Hartford Series (Elmwood Senior Center, South Windsor Senior Center), 2019-2020 [SEE BELOW]
  • Wethersfield Senior Center, September 21, 2018
  • Babcock Library, Ashford CT, May 12, 2017
  • Ellington Historical Society, September 22, 2016
  • The Hartford Club, 2015
  • Nook Farm Book Talk at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center/Mark Twain House and Museum, Hartford September 3, 2014
  • Burlington Public Library, March 12, 2014
  • Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford, November 14, 2013
  • Enfield Public Library, October 2013
  • West Hartford Public Library, October 3, 2013
  • Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford, October 4, 2012
  • Nook Farm Book Talk, Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, Hartford, September 20, 2012

Historical Hartford Series (2019-2020)

Before the Pandemic, I premiered a series of 14 presentations at the Elmwood Senior Center in West Hartford that focused on historic buildings of Hartford, Connecticut, so many of which are lost to us today. These Power Point talks featured numerous images, enlivened with anecdotes about Hartford places and personalities, to show how the city’s streetscapes have been transformed over time.  Some of the talks focused on specific streets and neighborhoods, while others look at examples of certain types of buildings. I have also presented many of these Historic Hartford topics at the South Windsor Senior Center, Brookdale Chatfield Senior Living in West Hartford, River Ridge at Avon, The Ivy at Ellington, Farmington Station, Masonicare at Middlewoods of Farmington, Masonicare at Middlewoods of Newington. Please contact me if you are interested in booking any of these presentations. There are many additional topics that I am currently developing!

Great Buildings of Hartford Course

I taught several multi-week continuing education courses for West Hartford LifeLearn (Summer 2016, Summer 2018, Fall 2018 and Summer 2019). Like my Historical Hartford presentations, the “Great Buildings of Hartford” course covers downtown Hartford’s changing historic streetscapes, with a focus on lost buildings and how successive waves of construction, demolition and alteration have led to the city’s current built environment..