How did I miss this? The Connecticut Historical Society has an online exhibit entitled "Remembering G. Fox & Co." It's wonderful, with lots of information and lots of photos, all well-presented. There's also a page where people can share their memories of the downtown department store, which opened in 1847 and closed in 1993.
Yours truly worked at G. Fox as a shoe salesman during his college years, in the early 1980s. It was still a hub of downtown Hartford but clearly losing business to suburban malls and strip malls--which, maddeningly for downtown boosters, often included G. Fox satellite stores. For prior generations, the downtown store had been integral to their sense of what "Hartford" meant, right there with the insurance companies, the parks, or any other institution you could name.
Here's hoping someone will create a similar tribute someday to G. Fox's competitor and next-door neighbor, Sage-Allen & Co.
