Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

Mrs. Bond, of whom ten survive. Their
children were as follows: Nellie M., Herman
E., Harry Slocomb, Frederick H.,
Harriet R., George Calvin, Lena M., Samuel
F., Edith L., Grace C, Edward E., and
Bernie E. Mr. and Mrs. Bond were
members of the Congregational church.
Harry Slocomb Bond, son of George
Calvin and Abbie (Holbrook) Bond, was
born in Shirley village, Massachusetts,
May ii, 1871. He attended the public
schools of Holden, where his parents then
resided, up to the age of seventeen years.
He then made his entrance into the line
of work in which he has since proved so
successful, accepting a position as bell
boy in the Old Mansion House at Green-
field, Massachusetts, in which capacity he
served for three years, and as clerk for one
year. He also served as clerk for one sea-
son at Piney Woods Hotel, Thomasville,
Georgia. At the age of twenty-one years
he came to Hartford, Connecticut, and
became a clerk in the United States Ho-
tel, holding the position for one year.
The following three and a half years he
served as assistant manager for Mr. Ryan
at the Elm Tree Inn, and then Mr. Ryan
and Mr. Bond formed a partnership and
opened a restaurant at No. 232 Asylum
street, under the firm name of Bond &
Ryan. At the expiration of the first year,
Mr. Bond purchased his partner's inter-
est, and subsequently conducted the bus-
iness for nine years on his own account.
The business increased very rapidly, and
acquired a name throughout New England.
During the last year Mr. Bond
found that the space was insufficient to
meet the demands of his numerous pa-
trons, and he accordingly sought larger
quarters, opening the Harry Bond restaurant
at No. 734 Main street. This was
the old Mattie Hewins billiard parlors,
probably the best known billiard parlor
in the United States, frequented by all the
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
260
famous players. At first Mr. Bond leased
only one floor, but at the expiration of
one year he was compelled to lease an-
other, and at the expiration of another
year leased the third floor, and at the pres-
ent time (1917) is one of the largest res-
taurants in the State of Connecticut,
rivaled in size by not more than one or
two other places in the New England
States, having a seating capacity for one
thousand and fifty people. Mr. Bond rec-
ognized the demand for better hotel accommodations
in Hartford, and decided
to erect an up-to-date hotel, which he
accordingly did at Nos. 320 to 328 Asylum
street. The Hotel Bond was successful
under Mr. Bond's management, and
at the expiration of the first year the
original space, which consisted of sleeping
accommodations for two hundred
people and dining accommodations for
five hundred and fifty, was totally insufficient
for the number of its patrons, and
he leased the Dillon Court Hotel, remod-
eling and refurnishing it, making it an
up-to-date transient hotel, changing the
name to the Bond Annex, this having
sleeping accommodations for three hundred
and fifty people. Mr. Bond's management
of both of these hotels has been
so successful that he was compelled to
build a larger addition to Hotel Bond. In
March, 1912, the Hotel Bond Company
was incorporated, with Harry S. Bond as
its secretary, treasurer and managing di-
rector. Mr. Bond is justly proud of his
success in the hotel business, and is
known by the traveling public as a gen-
uine boniface and host. He is a selfmade
man in every sense of the word.
Mr. Bond is one of the most popular
hotel men in the United States, and he
keeps in touch with the men in his line
of work by membership in the New England
Hotel Men's Association, the New
York State and New York City Hotel as-