Hartford City Parks Photograph Collection

The photographs illustrate Hartford's parks, their beauty, and their many uses.

During the first half of the 20th Century, Hartford was known throughout the nation for its system of parks. Building on the initiative of the Reverend Horace Bushnell in the 1850s, Hartford transformed an area of land along its Hog River (also called the Park River) into America's first public city park; an oasis in the midst of a growing industrial and commercial municipality. Designed by landscape architect Jacob Weidenmann, the City Park (later re-named for Bushnell) became the cornerstone of a chain of parks, large and small. The park system reached its zenith around 1900 under the direction of two visionary superintendents, Theodore Wirth and George A. Parker. They were aided by designs of the Olmsted firm. During that time, Hartford's chain of parks and projected linking parkways became a model for cities across the nation, as they sought to introduce space for relaxation and recreation into increasingly crowded urban settings. Inspired by the city's initiative, public benefactors like brothers Walter and Henry Keney, Colonel Albert Pope, Charles M. Pond, and Elizabeth Colt added large tracts, either as outright gifts of land or through funds dedicated to the purchase of additional parkland. Parks had many uses and amenities, such as golf courses, baseball diamonds, tennis courts, children's gardens, boating, and picnic facilities. Combined with experimental gardens and the nation's first public rose garden, Hartford's parks afforded all social and economic levels of the city's populace the opportunity for healthful recreation.