Bushnell Park | |
Location | Bounded by Elm, Jewell, and Trinity Sts., Hartford, Connecticut |
---|---|
Coordinates | 41°45′54″N72°40′46″W / 41.76500°N 72.67944°W |
Area | 37 acres (15 ha) |
Built | 1868 |
Architect | Weidenmann, Jacob |
NRHP reference No. | 70000692 [1] |
Added to NRHP | October 22, 1970 |
Bushnell Park in Hartford, Connecticut is the second oldest publicly funded park in the United States, after Boston Common, which was established in 1634, and converted to a park in the 1830’s. Bushnell Park was conceived by the Reverend Horace Bushnell in the mid-1850s at a time when the need for open public spaces was just starting to be recognized. Today the park comprises 50 acres (20 ha) of green space, and is visited by over one million people each year. [2] Paths through the park contribute to the East Coast Greenway.
Hartford in the 1850s was a rapidly growing river town, doubling in population from 1850 to 1860. [3] The city's economy was booming, driven by industries such as publishing, insurance, banking, munitions, manufacturing and river shipping. Like many American cities of the time, Hartford was enjoying the benefits of the Industrial Revolution. But along with this growth came some growing pains, including crime, crowded tenements, poverty, poor sanitation, polluted water and air. It was in this context that Bushnell presented an idea that had not been suggested in any other American city: the creation of a public park, financed entirely by public funds.
Initial public reaction was skeptical. Hard-nosed business leaders were opposed to removing taxable property from the tax rolls. Furthermore, it was hard to imagine a less likely place for a green, peaceful park than Bushnell's proposed site, which was home to two leather tanneries, a soapworks, pigsties and other livestock–even a garbage dump. A railroad spur ran through it and the smelly Park River, polluted with the city's industrial waste, ran alongside it. Crowded tenements lined both banks of the river, with their outhouses in the back emptying directly into the sluggish current. Even Rev. Bushnell described it as “hell without the fire.”
However, after hearing Dr. Bushnell's presentation in October 1853, the Hartford City Council voted unanimously in November to spend public funds to buy the land that was to become Bushnell Park. Hartford voters approved the expenditure on Jan. 5, 1854, by a vote of 1,687 to 683, making it the first municipal park in the nation to be conceived, built and paid for by citizens through a popular vote. [4]
But six years later the park still had not taken shape. Reverend Bushnell asked his good friend and Hartford native, Frederick Law Olmsted, to design the layout of the park. Olmsted, however, was occupied at the time with the double-duty of designing of New York City's Central Park and Springfield, Massachusetts' Forest Park, and thus declined the offer. Olmsted recommended Jacob Weidenmann, a Swiss-born landscape architect and botanist. Weidenmann's plan for the park included graceful paths and clusters of trees that shielded strollers from the sounds of the city, and enhanced the presence of the Park River which flowed through the park.
Later additions to the park include: the statue of Israel Putnam in 1874, sculpted by John Quincy Adams Ward; the statue of Horace Wells in 1875, sculpted by Truman Howe Bartlett; the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch, designed by George Keller in 1886 to commemorate those who fought in the American Civil War; the Corning Fountain in 1899, with sculpture by J. Massey Rhind; the 1914 carousel in 1974 (with a Wurlitzer #153 Band Organ providing the music); and the performance pavilion in 1995. [5]
As a result of seasonal flooding and pollution, and especially after damage from the great flood of 1936, the Park River was buried in underground conduits, and a main feature of the park was lost. A pond was later added to return a water feature to the park. Since 2017, the Bushnell Park Pond has been home to Horace, a territorial Great Blue Heron, lovingly named by the local 06103 community to commemorate both Horace Wells, and Horace Bushnell.
Today Bushnell Park is a focal point in downtown Hartford, and it is the site of several festivals and music events each year.
The park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. [1]
Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 census. Hartford is the most populous city in the Capitol Planning Region and the core city of the Greater Hartford metropolitan area.
Windsor is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, and was the first English settlement in the state. It lies on the northern border of Connecticut's capital, Hartford. The town is part of the Capitol Planning Region. The population of Windsor was 29,492 at the 2020 census.
East Hartford is a town in the Capitol Planning Region, Connecticut, United States. The population was 51,045 at the 2020 census. The town is located on the east bank of the Connecticut River, directly across from Hartford. It is home to aerospace manufacturer Pratt & Whitney. It is also home to Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field, a stadium used mainly for soccer and football with a capacity of 40,000 people.
Meriden is a city in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, located halfway between the regional cities of New Haven and Hartford. The city is part of the South Central Connecticut Planning Region. In 2020, the population of the city was 60,850.
Charles Eliot was an American landscape architect. Known for pioneering principles of regional planning, naturalistic systems approach to landscape architecture, and laying the groundwork for conservancies across the world. Instrumental in the formation of The Trustees of Reservations, the world's first land trust, playing a central role in shaping the Boston Metropolitan Park System, designing a number of public and private landscapes, and wrote prolifically on a variety of topics.
Forest Park in Springfield, Massachusetts, is one of the largest urban, municipal parks in the United States, covering 735 acres (297 ha) of land overlooking the Connecticut River. Forest Park features a zoo, aquatic gardens, and outdoor amphitheater, in addition to design elements like winding wooded trails, and surprising, expansive views. The site of America's first public, municipal swimming pool, currently, during the holiday months Forest Park hosts a popular high-tech lighting display, known as Bright Nights. Contrary to popular belief, the park was not designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, although it was designed by his firm.
The Emerald Necklace consists of a 1,100-acre chain of parks linked by parkways and waterways in Boston and Brookline, Massachusetts. It was designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, and gets its name from the way the planned chain appears to hang from the "neck" of the Boston peninsula. In 1989, the Emerald Necklace was designated as a Boston Landmark by the Boston Landmarks Commission.
The Connecticut State Capitol is located north of Capitol Avenue and south of Bushnell Park in Hartford, the capital of Connecticut. The building houses the Connecticut General Assembly; the upper house, the State Senate, and lower house, the House of Representatives, as well as the office of the Governor of the State of Connecticut. The Connecticut Supreme Court occupies a building across Capitol Avenue.
The Bulkeley Bridge is the oldest of three highway bridges over the Connecticut River between Hartford, Connecticut and East Hartford, Connecticut. A stone arch bridge composed of nine spans, the bridge carries Interstate 84, U.S. Route 6, and U.S. Route 44 across the river. As of 2005, the bridge carried an average daily traffic of 142,500 cars. The arches are mounted on stone piers, and vary in length from 68 feet (21 m) to 119 feet (36 m); the total length of the bridge is 1,192 feet (363 m).
George Keller was an American architect and engineer. He enjoyed a diverse and successful career, and was sought for his designs of bridges, houses, monuments, and various commercial and public buildings. Keller's most famous projects, however, are the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch in Hartford, Connecticut, and the James A. Garfield Memorial in Cleveland, Ohio.
The neighborhoods of Hartford, Connecticut in the United States are varied and historic.
The Park River is a tributary of the Connecticut River in Hartford, Connecticut. It was officially named the Park River in 1892 after Bushnell Park, through which it flowed in downtown Hartford. A local newspaper had advocated for that name rather than the “’Hog River’” name which was then in use. Between 1940 and the 1980s, the 2.3-mile (3.7 km) river was buried by the Army Corps of Engineers to prevent the spring floods regularly caused by increased surface runoff from urban development.
Cedar Hill Cemetery in Hartford, Connecticut is located at 453 Fairfield Avenue. It was designed by landscape architect Jacob Weidenmann (1829–1893) who also designed Hartford's Bushnell Park. Its first sections were completed in 1866 and the first burial took place on July 17, 1866. Cedar Hill was designed as an American rural cemetery in the tradition of Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Jacob Weidenmann was a landscape architect from Switzerland known for his design of rural cemeteries and public parks.
Elm Park is an historic park in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Downtown Hartford, Connecticut is the primary business district of the city, and the center of Connecticut's state government. Because of the large number of insurance companies headquartered there, Hartford is known as the "Insurance Capital of the World".
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Hartford, Connecticut, USA.
Colt Park is a city park in the southeast Hartford, Connecticut neighborhood of Sheldon/Charter Oak. The 106-acre (43 ha) park was established from the former Armsmear Estate of Samuel Colt and Elizabeth Jarvis Colt which was gifted to the city upon her death in 1905. Today the park is home to playgrounds, sports fields, a pool and Dillon Stadium. Colt Park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 8, 1976, designated as part of the Colt Industrial District, valued for its association with industrialist Samuel Colt. It is bounded by Wawarme, Wethersfield, Hendricxsen, Van Dyke Avenues and Stonington, Maseek and Sequassen Streets.
Lewis Fulton Memorial Park is a public park in the city of Waterbury, Connecticut. Located north of the city center, it was developed in the 1920s through the philanthropy of William Fulton, a brass company owner, as a memorial to his son Lewis. Its grounds were designed by the Olmsted Brothers landscape architects, and were largely completed by 1925. The park includes facilities for both active and passive recreation, and retains many Olmsted-designed features. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
Dr. Horace Wells, also known as the Horace Wells Monument, is a monumental statue in Hartford, Connecticut, United States. The statue, located in the city's Bushnell Park, was designed by sculptor Truman Howe Bartlett and dedicated in 1875 in honor of Horace Wells, a dentist who was a pioneer in the use of anesthesia.