'80s Rock Club Crumbles
FilmMagic
Demo crews to level one-time West Hartford hot spot for musicians.
Jerry Garcia.Santana.The Ramones.Even the 1980s Christian hair band, Stryper. They all once played at the Agora Ballroom in West Hartford in the 1980s and now a demolition crew is moving in to knock down the site.
The building, according to the Hartford Courant, was constructed in 1963 and could hold about 5,000 people but it hasn't been used in almost 20 years.
The Agora was once the place for bands to play in Connecticut. The last club located there, the Forum, closed in 1990, soon after vandals with a chainsaw ruined the interior, the Courant reports. No one has ever been charged with the destruction. The 5-acre parcel and the building has been vacant ever since.
The Arboriao Corp and Charter Oak Utility Constructors Inc. say the building can't be removated and plan to knock it down this summer.
