Walnut Hill Park is a large public park west of downtown New Britain, Connecticut. Developed beginning in the 1860s, it is an early work of landscape architect

Frederick Law Olmsted Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822August 28, 1903) was an American landscape architect, journalist, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the USA. Olmsted was famous for co ...

, with winding lanes, a band shell, and the city's monument to its

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 ...

soldiers. The park 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 1982.

History

The area that became Walnut Hill Park was a barren hillside when it was purchased by a group of leading citizens in 1857. In 1858 a reservoir was built on the site, intended to provide additional water for fire protective services. It never adequately fulfilled this role, and was formally decommissioned in 1912 and subsequently filled in. The city hired Frederick Law Olmsted, a native of

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 ...

who was then in the early years of his partnership with

Calvert Vaux Calvert Vaux (; December 20, 1824 – November 19, 1895) was an English-American architect and landscape designer, best known as the co-designer, along with his protégé and junior partner Frederick Law Olmsted, of what would become New York Ci ...

, to design the landscaping around the reservoir. The land was formally conveyed to the city in 1867, which in 1870 acquired additional parcels to increase the park size to about . Cornelius B. Erwin, one of the original proprietors, gave the city an endowment for maintenance of the park. Principal construction of the park roadway took place in 1870-72, and was halted by the financial

Panic of 1873 The Panic of 1873 was a financial crisis that triggered an economic depression in Europe and North America that lasted from 1873 to 1877 or 1879 in France and in Britain. In Britain, the Panic started two decades of stagnation known as the ...

. In 1919 the city designated the park as the site of its

memorial, an

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

structure designed by H. Van Buren Magonigle and installed in 1928. The location was one that Olmsted had designated for the placement of a tower, just to the north of the reservoir.

Geography

The eastern portion of the park is characterized by hilly terrain, with a relatively flat area formerly occupied by the reservoir. The reservoir site was eventually reduced to a small wading pool, and was then completely filled in and replaced by an oval space with more formal landscaping. The western portion of the park is more level, and features a variety of athletic fields as well as the Darius Miller Band Shell. There are seven entrances to the park; the principal one is at the northeastern corner on West Main Street.

References

External links

{{National Register of Historic Places National Register of Historic Places in Hartford County, Connecticut Neoclassical architecture in Connecticut Buildings and structures completed in 1870 Parks in Hartford County, Connecticut

History

Geography

See also

References

External links