Hartford - Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Colt Armory (1865)

The original Colt Armory was built in 1855 and was a central part of Samuel Colt‘s firearms-making empire. Based in the district of Hartford known as Coltsville, the armory was later joined by additional buildings, including housing for workers. The Colt mansion, Armsmear, was also built on a nearby hill, overlooking the factory complex. Three years after Colt’s death, the original armory was destroyed by fire in 1864. It was then rebuilt by Colt’s widow, Elizabeth Colt, using designs by the company’s general manager, General William B. Franklin. The new building was designed to be fireproof and also larger than its predecessor. It was also more decorative, with a design based on the styles of the Italian Renaissance.

The new Colt Armory also carried over the most dramatic feature of the original structure, the blue onion dome with gold stars, topped by a gold orb and a rampant colt, the original symbol of the Colt Manufacturing Company. Today, a gilded fiberglass replica is used, the gilded wood original now being displayed at the Museum of Connecticut History. As for Sam Colt‘s use of the famous onion dome, a distinctive feature easily noted by drivers on I-91, there are different theories concerning its origins, ranging from its being a tribute to his early Russian business contacts, to simply being a dramatic marketing statement which no one would forget. Coltsville is now undergoing plans for adaptive reuse and there is support for transforming the complex into a National Park.

Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Company Building (1963)

Built as part of Constitution Plaza in Hartford in 1963, the Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Company building, designed by Max Abramovitz, is the world’s first two-sided building. Often called the “Boat Building” due to its shape, it is considered a notable example of the International Style of modern architecture. Phoenix was originally founded in 1851 as the American Temperance Life Insurance Company. Its name was changed to Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance in 1861.

Isham-Terry House (1854)

Built in 1854 on High Street in Hartford, the Isham-Terry House is an Italian Villa-style home that was once surrounded by a residential neighborhood, now lost to urban renewal. Many drivers may notice this distinctive house, standing alone in its isolated position, as they go by on I-84. It was built for Ebenezer Roberts, a partner in a wholesale grocery firm with the Keney Brothers. In 1896 it was bought by Dr. Oliver K. Isham, who used it as both a home and doctor’s office. He lived there with his two sisters, Julia and Charlotte. The sisters continued to live there after his death, despite the vast changes to the neighborhood, remaining into the 1970s. In 1980, they willed the house to the Antiquarian and Landmarks Society, and today it is a historic house museum.

The house is notable for a variety of features. The tower to the rear was a later addition and has a third-floor window that awkwardly intersects with the main roof of the house. The house also has intricate cast iron work on the exterior balconies, ordered from the Pheonix Iron Works catalog of 1853 (Francis Pratt and Amos Whitney, two young machinists working for this Hartford company, would start their own company in 1860). The doorway features elaborate columns and stained glass. The inside of the house is virtually unchanged, remaining as the sisters left it, and thus represents a unique survival of a Victorian house interior, even including Dr. Isham’s undisturbed office.

Cathedral of Saint Joseph (1962)

The original Gothic-style St. Joseph’s Cathedral of 1892, built on Farmington Avenue in Hartford and designed by Patrick Keely, burned in 1956. Although the exterior survived, it was decided to completely rebuild in a modern Gothic style utilizing a structure of reinforced concrete and an exterior covering of limestone. The cathedral is notable for the massive frieze over the entrance, featuring St. Joseph, its stained glass windows, made in France, and the ceramic tile mural, located behind the altar, of “Christ in Glory,” which is the largest in the world.

Armsmear (1857)

Built in 1857 on Wethersfield Avenue in Hartford for Samuel Colt, Armsmear has been called “the grandest residence in the Hartford of its day.” Often attributed to the architect Octavius Jordan, it is an elaborate Italian Villa. It has been much altered from its original opulence, having lost such features as an ornate dome with an ogee shape, similar to that on the Colt Armory in Hartford. Also lost are the glass-domed conservatories, added in 1861-2 and inspired by London’s Crystal Palace. The mansion still features three towers, and Bill Hosley describes, in the Hog River Journal, convincing the director of the Wadsworth Atheneum to approve an exhibition on Colt’s Empire by showing him the view of Coltsville from the Armsmear’s main tower. Hosley describes the tower as “one of the most alluring historic spaces in Connecticut.”

After the death of Elizabeth Colt, the house was altered, according to her will, by Benjamin Wistar Morris to became a residence for the widows of Episcopalian ministers. 140 acres of the Colt estate were also given to the city of Hartford to create Colt Park. Today Armsmear is described as a “51 unit apartment complex for retired single women.”

Morgan Memorial Building, Wadsworth Atheneum (1910)

Around 1900, J. Pierpont Morgan, a native of Hartford, was encouraged by his cousin, Rev. Francis Goodwin, to acquire land adjacent to the Wadsworth Atheneum for the museum to use in a future expansion. Goodwin was then the president of the Atheneum. In 1910, Morgan presented the Morgan Memorial Wing in honor of his father. It was designed by the firm of LaFarge and Morris.

Colt Memorial Building, Wadsworth Atheneum (1906)

The Colt Memorial, designed by Benjamin Wistar Morris, was constructed in 1906 as part of the Wadsworth Atheneum complex of buildings. It connects the original structure of 1844 to the Morgan Memorial. Like the Church of the Good Shepherd, it was donated by Elizabeth Colt to house the many art objects she had given to the museum. It is in a Gothic style and features diamond paned windows, which match the original Atheneum building’s Gothic Revival style, and a medieval-style oriel window. In front stands a statue of Nathan Hale. It was created by Enoch Woods Smith as a contest entry in the 1880s for a statue to be placed in the State Capitol. It was not selected, but James J. Goodwin, who had commissioned it, later donated it to the museum in 1892.

BTW, this blog is now two months old!