The Elm Street Historic District encompasses a collection of architecturally distinguished institutional and residential buildings near the

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

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...

. Located on Capitol Avenue and Trinity and Elm Streets, it includes the city's best concentration of early 20th-century architecture, including Bushnell Memorial Hall and several state office buildings. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1984.

Description and history

The Elm Street Historic District is located on the southwest of Hartford's downtown. It is bounded on the north by

Bushnell Park Bushnell Park in Hartford, Connecticut is the second oldest publicly funded park in the United States, after Boston Common, which was established in 1634, and converted to a park in the 1830’s. Bushnell Park was conceived by the Reverend Hora ...

and the west by the grounds of the state capitol complex. Its buildings extend along Capitol Avenue and the south side of Elm Street between Trinity Street and Pulaski Circle, and along Trinity from Elm to Buckingham Street. It is about in size, and originally included fourteen historically significant buildings. The largest of these is the State Office Building, between Capitol and Buckingham, a fine example of Classical Revival architecture with Art Deco details, built in 1930 to a design by Corbett, Harrison & MacMurray of

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. Just to its north is Bushnell Memorial Hall, designed by the same firm and also completed in 1930. It features a Georgian Revival exterior and a rich Art Deco interior. Extending east from the Bushnell area on Capitol Avenue are the First Presbyterian Church (1870, Romanesque Revival), and parking lots, some of which on the site of early 20th-century residential buildings that were part of the district listing but have since been demolished. North of the Bushnell, at the corner of Trinity and Elm Streets, is the former Orient Insurance Company, now housing the state treasurer's office. It is a fine example of Beaux Arts architecture, built in 1905 to a design by Davis & Brooks of Hartford. Extending east from that building along Elm Street were three large buildings all built by insurance companies between 1917 and 1926, as well as the J.M. Ney building, a former factory. Two of these buildings have been demolished; one, the Scottish Union & National Building, now houses the state appellate court.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Historic districts in Hartford County, Connecticut Colonial Revival architecture in Connecticut Geography of Hartford, Connecticut Renaissance Revival architecture in Connecticut National Register of Historic Places in Hartford, Connecticut Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut

Description and history

See also

References