The Heublein Tower is located in Talcott Mountain State Park in Simsbury, Connecticut and provides panoramic views of the

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 ...

skyline, the

Farmington River The Farmington River is a river, U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 in length along its main stem, located in northwest Connecticut with major tributaries ex ...

Valley, and surrounding areas that are particularly spectacular in the fall. It was 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 ...

in 1983. The correct pronunciation of the tower is debated. The Heublein family came from Germany, whence the pronunciation , but after immigrating to the United States, over the years it was pronounced . After Heublein Inc. was bought by the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in 1982, advertising was run on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, who pronounced it .

History

Origin

Gilbert Heublein was a magnate in the area of food and beverage, most notably as manufacturer of A.1. Steak Sauce and

Smirnoff vodka Smirnoff (; ) is a brand of vodka owned and produced by the British company Diageo. The Smirnoff brand began with a vodka distillery founded in Moscow by Pyotr Arsenievich Smirnov (1831–1898). It is distributed in 130 countries. Smirnoff produ ...

; he founded Heublein Inc. While hiking with his then-fiancé Louise M. Gundlach on Talcott Mountain, he promised her that one day he would build her a castle there.

Construction

Designed by Smith and Bassette to survive winds, and built by T. R. Fox and Son in 1914, the Heublein Tower served as Gilbert Heublein's summer home and retreat. Smith and Bassette also designed the north and south wings of Governor's Mansion in 1916. Truly an architectural marvel, Mr. Heublein modeled this structure after buildings in his native homeland of Bavaria. Standing tall and situated above the Farmington Valley, one can see for several dozen miles in all directions from the top floor observation lounge. The structure consists of a steel frame of girders anchored into the bedrock of the mountain ridge. The four columns in the four corners extend up to the second level and are made of reinforced concrete. A system of cross-girder braces adds strength to the shaft and cross-beams support the floors. It is also the site of the first home elevator in Connecticut.

Ownership

In 1943, the tower was purchased by ''

The Hartford Times ''The Hartford Times'' was a daily afternoon newspaper serving the Hartford, Connecticut, community from 1817 to 1976. It was owned for decades by the Gannett Company which sold the financially struggling paper in 1973 to the owners of the ''New ...

'', and Heublein Tower became known as the Times Tower. The plan was to use the tower as a broadcasting location for their radio station,

WTHT WTHT (99.9 FM broadcasting, FM; "The Wolf") is a radio station broadcasting a country music format. Licensed to Auburn, Maine, the station serves the Portland, Maine, Portland area. The station is owned by Binnie Media. Programming is simulcast o ...

, but it was soon determined the tower could not handle the transmitting antenna's load. It was then employed by the ''Times'' as a place for parties and social gatherings for nearly 20 years.

Restoration efforts

The Heublein Tower is managed by the State of Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection. Restoration and support of the Tower interior is funded in large part by the work of the non-profit organization, The Friends of Heublein Tower. The Friends' organization was established in 1985 and is dedicated to preserving and restoring the Heublein Tower and its surrounding estate. Most recent restoration activities include the installation of a white oak parquet floor in the observation room (known as the ballroom in Gilbert Heublein's day) designed in the same pattern as the original.

Historical significance

Due to anti-German sentiment in the United States during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, rumors circulated that Gilbert Heublein was using a spotlight on top of the tower's

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, fro ...

to inform German ships of the location of Allied vessels. In order to stop the rumors, Heublein offered the use of the tower to the state and federal governments, both of which declined. Several famous people have been guests at the tower. The Republican Party asked General

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...

to run for president there, an event which was also attended by Prescott Bush, father of George H. W. Bush. Ronald Reagan also visited the tower in the 1950s while he was president of the

Screen Actors Guild The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was an American labor union which represented over 100,000 film and television principal and background performers worldwide. On March 30, 2012, the union leadership announced that the SAG membership voted to m ...

. Others included Admiral Charles Nimitz, General

Omar Bradley Omar Nelson Bradley (February 12, 1893April 8, 1981) was a senior officer of the United States Army during and after World War II, rising to the rank of General of the Army. Bradley was the first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and over ...

, architect

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...

, opera singer

James Melton James Melton (January 2, 1904 – April 21, 1961), a popular singer in the 1920s and early 1930s, later began a career as an operatic singer when tenor voices went out of style in popular music around 1932–35. His singing talent was similar to ...

, and actress

Tallulah Bankhead Tallulah Brockman Bankhead (January 31, 1902 – December 12, 1968) was an American actress. Primarily an actress of the stage, Bankhead also appeared in several prominent films including an award-winning performance in Alfred Hitchcock's '' L ...

References

External links

Friends of Heublein Tower
{{National Register of Historic Places Buildings and structures in Simsbury, Connecticut Towers in Connecticut Buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut Tourist attractions in Hartford County, Connecticut Metacomet Ridge, Connecticut Museums in Hartford County, Connecticut Buildings and structures completed in 1914 National Register of Historic Places in Hartford, Connecticut