Historic Sites in Hartford, Connecticut

From the time of its founding as a Dutch trading post in 1623 - just three years after the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth - Hartford, Connecticut grew to become, in turn, a center of trade, insurance and manufacturing. For a time following the Civil War, it was the wealthiest city in America. Hartford remains the home of a number of significant historical landmarks.

Old State House

The oldest remaining of any American state capitol buildings stands in Hartford, Connecticut. The Old State House, as it is now known, opened in 1796. It was the first public building noted architect Charles Bulfinch designed in a career that eventually led to his designing the state capitol buildings in Massachusetts and Maine, as well as the dome and rotunda of the U. S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

For the nearly 100 years it served as the seat of state government in Connecticut, the building saw its share of history. The first governor to serve in the building was Oliver Wolcott, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Nearly a half century after the war, in 1825, the Marquis de La Fayette was made an honorary American citizen in a ceremony at the Old State House during his final visit to this country. In 1839, the famed trial of Cinque and the rebellious slaves from the ship Amistad was held in the building's Colonial Revival style courtroom.

Noah Webster Birthplace

After American gained its independence from England, Noah Webster - a teacher in Hartford and what is now West Hartford - decided that schoolchildren in the new country should learn from books actually written by and for Americans. For over a century, his book A Grammatical Institute of the English Language, which was better known by its nickname, the "Blue-Backed Speller," was a standard in classrooms across the country.

Later in life, Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language standardized spelling and usage unique to this country, while collecting and defining a wide range of New World terms . Today, the house where Webster was born is a museum and education center.

Mark Twain House

In a custom-built home designed to resemble the riverboats of his Mississippi River youth, Samuel Clemens wrote some of the most influential works in American literature - including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and, of course, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.

The 19-room house, located in the Nook Farm section of Hartford, was built by noted architect Edward Tuckerman Potter, and the interior was designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany. In its day it featured some of the most modern conveniences of any home in America, including seven bathrooms with newly-invented flush toilets and one of the first telephones ever installed in a private residence. But the most important feature of the house is the third-floor billiard room where Twain wrote his timeless classics.

Harriet Beecher Stowe Center

The Nook Farm neighborhood was well-known as one of the leading intellectual and literary enclaves in the country. Right next door to Twain lived Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of the famous and controversial Uncle Tom's Cabin. Stowe's sister, the noted women's rights activist Isabella Beecher Hooker, also lived in the Nook Farm neighborhood. Today, visitors can take a self-guided walking tour of the historic neighborhood by means of a map available at the Stowe Center.

The home where the author lived for the last 20 years of her life now displays many of the family's original belongings. The furniture was purchased and placed in the rooms by Stowe herself. Much of the artwork that she acquired on her frequent trips to Europe is on display in the home, as well as some paintings done by the author herself. The Stowe Center's library, with its 12,000-volume collection - begun with Stowe's own books and expanded over the years - includes first-edition books by Harriet Beecher Stowe and members of her famous family, as well as Stowe's personal correspondence with historic figures such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.