Hartford, CT Summary

photo by gusto

Connecticut’s capital city is located at the northern end of the navigable portion of the Connecticut River, in the north-central part of the state. Since 1794, scores of insurance companies have made Hartford their base. Along with finance, insurance companies provide a multibillion-dollar service industry to augment the city’s manufacture of firearms, machinery and aerospace products.

Hartford has grown to more than 133,100 people since 1614, when Dutch explorer Adrian Block sailed up the river into a region long occupied by Sicaog Native Americans. The Dutch established a trading post and fort, House of Hope, here in 1623. In 1635, English settlers from Massachusetts, led by the Reverend Thomas Hooker and Samuel Stone, established the first settlement. The settlement was named after Stone’s birthplace — Hertfordshire in England.

In 1639 the settlement became part of Connecticut Colony, which was governed under the Fundamental Orders, considered by some the first written constitution for a democratic government.

Connecticut Colony encouraged the 13 British colonies to rebel almost a century before the Revolutionary War. In 1687, New England’s new British governor, Sir Edmund Andos, ordered the colony to surrender the charter King Charles II had granted it 25 years earlier. The colonists refused, and hid the document in a large oak tree. Wind felled the Charter Oak in 1856, but the site is marked by a plaque.

From 1701 to 1875, Hartford shared the seat of Connecticut government with New Haven. The dangers of shipping led groups of merchants to share the risks, and in 1810 the practice was formalized as the Hartford Fire Insurance Group. Now, the city is “the insurance capital of the world,” a fact reflected in a skyline that includes The Travelers Tower, at 527 feet one of the region’s tallest, and Phoenix Home Life Mutual Insurance Company’s glass-andsteel “boat building.” Inventive manufacturers helped turn Hartford into an industrial center. Gunmaker Samuel Colt, for example, pioneered the use of interchangeable parts, laying the foundation for mass production.

The city is home to the nation’s oldest continuously published newspaper, The Hartford Courant (begun in 1764), and the oldest public art museum, the Wadsworth Athenaeum (1844). Authors Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) and Harriett Beecher Stowe lived in the Nook Farm area.

The city boasts a symphony orchestra, ballet company, opera, and theater. Trinity College was founded in 1823. The city is also home to Hartford Seminary, Hartford College for Women, Hartford Graduate Center, and the University of Connecticut School of Law. The University of Hartford (1877) is in West Hartford.

Visitors will find roving ambassadors — the Hartford Guides — stationed downtown, in red hats and khaki-and-white uniforms.

They provide a range of services, from historical insights to help in emergencies.

Bradley International Airport, north of the city, provides air service. By car, access is via I-91 and I-84, and a number of US and state highways. Train service is also available.