{ "slug": "bushnell-park-capitol", "title": "Bushnell Park and the State Capitol", "towns": [ "Hartford" ], "counties": [ "Hartford" ], "dateRange": "1854–1995", "topic": "Parks & civic life", "summary": "Public landscape, Civil War remembrance and state government reshaped the center of Hartford over nearly a century and a half.", "history": [ { "heading": "A public investment in open space", "text": "Hartford voters approved funding for the land that became Bushnell Park in January 1854. Horace Bushnell’s proposal emerged from a growing industrial city, where crowded housing and polluted waterways made open space a civic concern. The park was not an empty rural site waiting for trees: industrial and residential uses already occupied the area. Its creation changed both the landscape and the way the city allocated space for common use.", "source_ids": [ "park-history" ] }, { "heading": "A landscape designed to be walked", "text": "Jacob Weidenmann developed the park’s 1861 plan. Frederick Law Olmsted recommended him but did not design the original park. Curving paths, varied plantings and the Park River distinguished the design from a formal town green. Period photographs are particularly useful because they preserve river edges and bridges that later disappeared. The park seen in a turn-of-the-century image is therefore a historical landscape, not simply an older photograph of today’s lawns.", "source_ids": [ "park-history", "park-photo" ] }, { "heading": "A new seat of government", "text": "The new State Capitol opened for the General Assembly in January 1879. Richard M. Upjohn supplied the architectural plans, and contractor James G. Batterson helped shape the building that rose beside the park. Marble, granite and the gilded dome gave the government a commanding presence above the landscape. Civil War battle flags carried into the building by veterans in September 1879 made it a place of public memory as well as legislative work.", "source_ids": [ "capitol-history", "capitol-state" ] }, { "heading": "Memory and change", "text": "George Keller’s Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch was added in 1886, and Corning Fountain followed in 1899. These monuments introduced new focal points into the park. In the twentieth century the burial of the Park River removed a central element of Weidenmann’s design. Later additions, including the carousel in 1974 and performance pavilion in 1995, show that public landscapes continue to change. The archive brings these layers together so visitors can distinguish the original plan, commemorative additions and subsequent redesign.", "source_ids": [ "park-history", "park-arch", "park-photo" ] } ], "timeline": [ { "date": "1854", "event": "Voters approve expenditure for the future park.", "source_ids": [ "park-history" ] }, { "date": "1861", "event": "Weidenmann’s landscape plan is developed.", "source_ids": [ "park-history" ] }, { "date": "1879", "event": "The new Capitol opens to the General Assembly.", "source_ids": [ "capitol-state" ] }, { "date": "1886", "event": "The Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch is dedicated.", "source_ids": [ "park-arch" ] }, { "date": "1899", "event": "Corning Fountain is added.", "source_ids": [ "park-history" ] }, { "date": "1974–1995", "event": "The carousel and later performance pavilion add new public uses.", "source_ids": [ "park-history" ] } ], "sources": [ { "id": "park-history", "title": "Bushnell Park Conservancy: Park History", "url": "https://bushnellpark.org/about-2/history-2" }, { "id": "park-arch", "title": "Bushnell Park Conservancy: Arch history", "url": "https://bushnellpark.org/attractions/soldiers-sailors-memorial-arch" }, { "id": "capitol-history", "title": "Connecticut General Assembly: Capitol history", "url": "https://www.cga.ct.gov/cprc/history.asp" }, { "id": "capitol-state", "title": "State of Connecticut: The State Capitol", "url": "https://portal.ct.gov/About/State-Symbols/The-State-Capitol" }, { "id": "park-photo", "title": "Library of Congress: Bushnell Park panorama, 1905", "url": "https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2025663449/" } ], "images": [ { "id": "3a166f6d3f026b88f756", "image": "/county-images/783b34ce38fb01d0de842ddc94bb58b747926e8f772dbaa9e58263311be43698.jpg", "title": "Bushnell Park panorama, 1905", "alt": "Bushnell Park panorama, 1905 — 1905.", "date": "1905.", "credit": "Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division", "creator": "", "source": "https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2025663449/", "rights": "No known restrictions on publication.", "license": "No known restrictions (repository advisory)", "licenseUrl": "https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2025663449/", "kind": "photograph", "later": false, "originalCaption": "Bushnell Park, Hartford, Conn., showing Y.M.C.A. building at the left, also the State Capitol, Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Arch, The Terrace, Corning Fountain, Stepping Stones, Park River, etc.", "originalImage": "https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/pnp/pcrd/1a00000/1a01000/1a01800/1a01813v.jpg" }, { "id": "4b6ecb50c0534f0c531b", "image": "/county-images/ab6c9e8b2fb1aae4c3682e5d07a9c0bc9e27b2d1582485def10e09fff4ecf0fa.jpg", "title": "Bushnell Park and the Capitol, 1909", "alt": "Bushnell Park and the Capitol, 1909 — c1909 Nov 29.", "date": "c1909 Nov 29.", "credit": "H.C. White Co. / Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division", "creator": "H.C. White Co.", "source": "https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2018647865/", "rights": "Public domain in the United States; publication dated c1909 Nov 29. (copyright term expired).", "license": "Public domain (United States)", "licenseUrl": "https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2018647865/", "kind": "photograph", "later": false, "originalCaption": "Bushnell Park and the beautiful marble Capitol, Hartford Conn., U.S.A.", "originalImage": "https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/pnp/stereo/1s10000/1s11000/1s11400/1s11446v.jpg" }, { "id": "22738525221df9eb3a06", "image": "/county-images/469f50357b25c47fd51d5a36e0b3734884f5257edfafdacd86128f29e29039fb.jpg", "title": "Memorial Arch and State Capitol, 1906", "alt": "Memorial Arch and State Capitol, 1906 — c1906.", "date": "c1906.", "credit": "Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division", "creator": "", "source": "https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2016805885/", "rights": "No known restrictions on publication.", "license": "No known restrictions (repository advisory)", "licenseUrl": "https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2016805885/", "kind": "photograph", "later": false, "originalCaption": "Memorial Arch and State House, Hartford, Conn.", "originalImage": "https://cdn.loc.gov/service/pnp/det/4a10000/4a13000/4a13100/4a13195v.jpg" }, { "id": "df6398806005916ab7f4", "image": "/county-images/b47150b3d651a58cbf448c83925635d0f0d1c5ebb8c7bf8ab1f70506ba4ba145.jpg", "title": "Connecticut State Capitol, 1906", "alt": "Connecticut State Capitol, 1906 — c[1906]", "date": "c[1906]", "credit": "Detroit Publishing Co. / Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division", "creator": "Detroit Publishing Co.", "source": "https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2016805886/", "rights": "Public domain in the United States; publication dated c[1906] (copyright term expired).", "license": "Public domain (United States)", "licenseUrl": "https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2016805886/", "kind": "photograph", "later": false, "originalCaption": "State House, Hartford, Conn.", "originalImage": "https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/pnp/det/4a10000/4a13000/4a13100/4a13196r.jpg" }, { "id": "2c62e89e8c8f537482c7", "image": "/county-images/ee7c8e2de78785fd4908b2a58e8d203c909d3dac3bc995b7bfe5a3bb96d1ad6f.jpg", "title": "Capitol, arch and fountain, Bushnell Park, Hartford, Conn.", "alt": "Capitol, arch and fountain, Bushnell Park, Hartford, Conn.", "date": "c1900", "credit": "Creator not identified in the catalog / Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division", "creator": "Creator not identified in the catalog", "source": "https://www.loc.gov/item/2002723715/", "rights": "No known restrictions on publication.", "license": "No known restrictions on publication (Library of Congress advisory)", "licenseUrl": "https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/rights.html", "kind": "photograph", "later": false, "originalCaption": "Capitol, arch and fountain, Bushnell Park, Hartford, Conn.", "originalImage": "https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/pnp/cph/3a00000/3a01000/3a01100/3a01105r.jpg" }, { "id": "f563d7749652079adcfc", "image": "/county-images/92a059a532a1f7309da07019206034670838bbe80c47e4b347ed89f0a03d8bdd.jpg", "title": "Bushnell Park in Hartford, Connecticut", "alt": "Bushnell Park in Hartford, Connecticut (later documentation)", "date": "2011 September — later documentation", "credit": "Highsmith, Carol M., 1946- / Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division", "creator": "Highsmith, Carol M., 1946-", "source": "https://www.loc.gov/item/2012630570/", "rights": "No known restrictions on publication.", "license": "No known restrictions on publication (Library of Congress advisory)", "licenseUrl": "https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/482_high.html", "kind": "photograph", "later": true, "originalCaption": "Bushnell Park in Hartford, Connecticut", "originalImage": "https://tile.loc.gov/image-services/iiif/service:pnp:highsm:19100:19150/full/pct:25/0/default.jpg" } ] }