Downtown

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since t ...

is the primary business district and the center of

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the ...

's state government. Due to the large number of insurance companies headquartered downtown, Hartford is known as the "Insurance Capital of the World".

Business

Downtown Hartford is home to such corporations as

The Hartford The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc., usually known as The Hartford, is a United States-based investment and insurance company. The Hartford is a Fortune 500 company headquartered in its namesake city of Hartford, Connecticut. It was ranke ...

Travelers Insurance The Travelers Companies, Inc., commonly known as Travelers, is an American insurance company. It is the second-largest writer of U.S. commercial property casualty insurance, and the sixth-largest writer of U.S. personal insurance through indepen ...

, Hartford Steam Boiler, The Phoenix Companies,

Aetna Aetna Inc. () is an American managed health care company that sells traditional and consumer directed health care insurance and related services, such as medical, pharmaceutical, dental, behavioral health, long-term care, and disability plans, ...

and

United Technologies Corporation United Technologies Corporation (UTC) was an American multinational conglomerate headquartered in Farmington, Connecticut. It researched, developed, and manufactured products in numerous areas, including aircraft engines, aerospace systems ...

, most of which are housed in office towers constructed over the last 20–30 years. Downtown also serves as the hub for bus routes of Connecticut Transit Hartford. Union Station is located in the western part of downtown. Downtown is also home to the

Hartford City Hall The Hartford Municipal Building, also known as Hartford City Hall, is a historic Beaux-Arts structure located at 550 Main Street in Hartford, Connecticut. Completed in 1915, it is a prominent local example of Beaux-Arts architecture, and is the ...

, the Hartford Public Library, which is undergoing a major expansion and renovation, the Old State House, which is one of the oldest state houses in the nation, the

Wadsworth Atheneum The Wadsworth Atheneum is an art museum in Hartford, Connecticut. The Wadsworth is noted for its collections of European Baroque art, ancient Egyptian and Classical bronzes, French and American Impressionist paintings, Hudson River School lands ...

which is the oldest public art museum in the country, Travelers Tower, historic

Hotel Bond Hotel Bond is a historic hotel, built in two stages in 1913 and 1921, in downtown Hartford, Connecticut by hotelier Harry S. Bond. It is located near Bushnell Park, and was considered the grandest hotel in Hartford during its heyday. The second ...

Bushnell Park Bushnell Park in Hartford, Connecticut is the oldest publicly funded park in the United States. It was conceived by the Reverend Horace Bushnell in the mid-1850s at a time when the need for open public spaces was just starting to be recognize ...

, and the

Connecticut State Capitol The Connecticut State Capitol is located north of Capitol Avenue and south of Bushnell Park in Hartford, the capital of Connecticut. The building houses the Connecticut General Assembly; the upper house, the State Senate, and lower house, the ...

and Legislative Office Complex. The south downtown area south of Bushnell Park is the site of several imposing buildings built in the early decades of the 20th century as the headquarters for large

insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...

companies. The Scottish Union and National Insurance Company building, in the

Georgian Revival style Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1714 and 1830. It is named after the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I, George II, Georg ...

, was built in 1913. The

Renaissance Revival-style Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range o ...

Connecticut General Life Insurance Company Cigna is an American multinational managed healthcare and insurance company based in Bloomfield, Connecticut. Its insurance subsidiaries are major providers of medical, dental, disability, life and accident insurance and related products and ser ...

building, built in 1926, was inspired by the

Medici-Riccardi Palace The Palazzo Medici, also called the Palazzo Medici Riccardi after the later family that acquired and expanded it, is a Renaissance palace located in Florence, Italy. It is the seat of the Metropolitan City of Florence and a museum. Overview ...

Florence, Italy Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico a ...

Education

Along Main Street, Capital Community College and the Hartford Public Schools offices are located in the 11-story building that until 1993 housed the G. Fox and Company department store. The newly renovated

University of Connecticut School of Business The University of Connecticut (UConn) School of Business is a graduate and undergraduate public business school that spans across four campuses, with the main campus located in Storrs, Connecticut. The UConn School of Business was founded in 19 ...

is located at Constitution Plaza. At the eastern edge of downtown at Adriaens Landing the

Connecticut Convention Center The Connecticut Convention Center is a convention center located in downtown Hartford, Connecticut, United States, overlooking the Connecticut River. History The center opened on June 2 2005. It was designed by Thompson, Ventulett, Stainback ...

opened in June 2005 near the new Marriott Hartford Hotel.

Housing

A major feature of the downtown and the city skyline is Hartford 21, a 36-story apartment tower completed in 2006. Starting in 2014 the 26-story office building at

777 Main Street 777 Main Street is a skyscraper located in Fort Worth, Texas. At , it is the third tallest building in Fort Worth. It has 40 stories, and was completed in 1983. Its address is 777 Main Street, and it takes up the block bounded by Commerce Street ...

(formerly the Bank of America Building) was converted into 285 luxury apartments.

Historic places

The downtown area includes eight

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from cer ...

s listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

: the

Ann Street Historic District The Ann Street Historic District is a historic district encompassing part of Downtown Hartford in Hartford, Connecticut. A commercial and light industrial area, the district includes properties along Ann Uccello Street (formerly called Ann St ...

, the Buckingham Square Historic District, the

Department Store Historic District The Department Store Historic District is a historic district in the Downtown Hartford neighborhood of the city of Hartford, Connecticut, United States. It is a area that, in 1995, included three contributing buildings, one other contributing ...

, the Downtown North Historic District, the Elm Street Historic District, the High Street Historic District, the Main Street Historic District No. 2, and the Pratt Street Historic District.

Pictures

File:Travelers Tower, Hartford, CT - view 1.JPG, Travelers Tower File:Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Building, Hartford CT - edge.JPG,

Phoenix Life Insurance Company Building The Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Building, locally called the "Boat Building", is a notable Modernist office building located on Constitution Plaza in Hartford, Connecticut. Designed by Max Abramovitz and completed in 1963, it is listed on the N ...

File:GoodwinSquare.jpg, Goodwin Square File:Pratt Street Hartford 2015.jpg, Pratt Street Historic District File:777 Main Street - Hartford, CT - DSC04955.jpg, 777 Main Street (Hartford, Connecticut) File:Downtown Hartford (190587073).jpeg, The Gold Building File:PostcardHartfordCTMainStSouth1908.jpg, Main Street, 1908 File:MainStHartford.jpg, Main Street, 2007

References

External links

Downtown Neighborhood Data
Hartford Public Library website

(map, photos, and descriptions) {{authority control Historic districts in Connecticut Geography of Hartford, Connecticut

Hartford Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since t ...