Historic Hartford

As one of the Original Colonies, Hartford the capitol of Connecticut, has a rich and historic past. On this trip I was searching for information on finding my roots and looking into the roots of Hartford as well.

Old State House-Constructed in 1789 this is one of the most historic building in Ct. It has served as the State Capitol Building, City Hall and a Civic Center. Beautifully restored it still plays a very historic role in CT, recently Senator Christopher Dodd announced his candidacy for the President in the Council Chamber. This is a good place for the whole family to visit, beyond the beautifully restored governors office and council chamber there is a small museum of oddities which kids will love and a museum of Connecticut which includes costumes for the kids to try on. There is an audio guided narrated by CT’s Governor, two senators and the mayor of Hartford which will put everything into its correct historical perspective.


Ancient Burying Ground-referred to as Hartford’s first cemetery it is in reality the second cemetery for Hartford’s founders. We took a guided tour which was offered as part of our genealogical convention, however there is a very good brochure which will take you to any of the graves markers that might be of interest to you. Keep in mind that very few of these ancient stones mark the correct location of the burial of the person they represent. Over the years the stones have been moved and realigned to make the cemetery more attractive as well as easier to maintain. You will find monuments to the founders of Hartford as well as to the African Americans who were buried here.

Quick Tips:

Hartford has a brand new Convention Center which has added a whole new feel to the city. It still is a bit of a restaurant wasteland in the area surrounding it, but there are plans in the works that should change that in the near future. There are two shuttle buses that can take you from local hotels or the convention center to restaurants located both on Franklin Avenue (which has a wide variety of restaurants but is especially known for it’s Italian food) and the Asylum Street area near the Civic Center.

Hartford has a lot of entertainment to offer. The Bushnell offers over 350 entertainment opportunities every year. They run the gamut from Broadway shows to performances by the Connecticut Opera and The Hartford Symphony Orchestra. To see what is on the schedule go to their website at The BushnellThe Hartford Stage is a nationally recognized theater which has won many awards and attracted some theater greats. Several years ago I saw Jean Stapleton in a one woman show about Eleanor Roosevelt and she was amazing. They offer 8 shows every year, 6 in the regular season and two in the summer. A Christmas Carol if offered in November and December and is an excellent adaptation of this classic. The Hartford Stage

The Hartford Civic center is undergoing a renaissance and will only be better in the future. It offers sports events as well as major performers . You can catch everything from Ringling Brothers Circus to The American Idols here. Ice hockey to ice dancing. Hartford Civic Center

To find out what is going on and to get suggestions about what to visit these two web sites



Hartford.com

Best Way To Get Around:

Amtrak and Metro North come in to Union Station which is on the westside of downtown. Public transportation and taxis are available from Union station to downtown hotels.

Hartford is served by Bradley International Airport which is located in Windsor Locks. All major airlines travel into Bradley which is also known as Hartford/Springfield Airport. Windsor is only about 15 minutes north of Hartford and offers several options for getting into the city. You can rent a car which allows the most flexibility but with parking expenses may not be the right option. Taxis are always available and you can also arrange to take the Bradley Flyer or the Ct. Limo buses. There are several hotels which offer airport pickup as well as park and fly options. Hartford parking authority has a map of downtown parking lots and garages. Hartford Parking Authority
Expect to pay between - for a days parking in the city.



Hartford has a fine public transportation system visit Connecticut Transitfor route maps and prices to get around the city and into the suburbs.

There is a free shuttle that can take you to local restaurants as well as tourist location. To learn more visit Star Shuttle. There are also two free restaurant shuttles that run in the evening, a green route and a red route.

Hartford has had its challenges over the years not just having quality accommodations downtown but also in keeping them. Many have come and gone but now there are several really great options. This is a pretty typical Marriott with a restaurant called Vivo, a beautiful pool, spa, and fitness area and a Starbucks in the lobby. It has beautifully groomed landscaping and a wonderfully light and airy feeling lobby.

The room that we had on the tenth floor was quite luxurious but also quite petite. We had two double beds with four pillows on each, a white feather bed and white sheets. The coverlet was bright yellow in a floral pattern. The walls were covered in a yellow striped wallpaper and curtains were yellow and red. We had one comfortable chair and a hassock with a small table beside the chair. There was a pole lamp so that you could read in the chair. The window was recessed and gave us stunning views of the old state house and downtown Hartford.

There was a tall dresser with the TV on top. Three drawers for our cloths and a safe and coffee pot inside a door on the other side. The closet was quite large with an iron and ironing board and only one luggage holder.

The bathroom was very small. If you are sitting on the toilet if the door opened it would hit you in the knees. The vanity was topped with granite and had a large Kohler sink. There was shampoo, conditioner, and lotion as amenities. However, only three large towels which is weird. The tub was sparkling clean and there was a light right over it.

There was a desk with a chair if you want to work and there certainly was room for a laptop, however, it was $9.95 a day if you wanted Internet access at high speed or if you were willing to settle for dial up you could pay $1 for 30 minutes. You could, however, choose to go down to the lobby and get free wireless access. There was also a computer available near the elevators with Internet access for free.

Soundproofing wasn't as good as you would expect, we could hear every word that people walking and talking in the hall were saying.

There was a thermostat on the wall that lets you control the temperature in your room . There was also an alarm clock on the one night stand between the beds. A USA today was delivered to our room in the morning.

Vivo offers room service if you so choose. Parking is offered for $18 per day self parking or $20 a day valet. Be warned if you choose valet it is not $20 for 24 hours, time ends at noon on checkout day and after that it is $2 per hour. Self parking is by 24 hour period and the walk is almost non existent, choose self park if you plan to stay beyond noon.

Located within walking distance of the Hartford Convention Center, Arch Street tavern offers a well priced option on the downtown area.

The building itself is attractive with brick walls and high wooden beamed ceilings with hanging fans. This, however, makes for a very high volume of noise especially with the added background music. Everywhere you look there are TV screens including a huge projection screen which was located right behind where out booth was located. We had booth seating as well as two high stools. The walls are covered with a variety of prints some of them of Hartford in yesteryear.

I wish I could give you a run down on the available brews but after a long day I had only a glass of water and my friends had soda and ice tea so what they offer will remain a mystery. The back of the menu, however, did have quite a fine wine list.

The menu is not large but I am happy to say that everything that we tried was exceptionally good. I ordered the clam chowder and then macaroni and cheese for my entrée. Kathy had the chili and mac and cheese. Colleen had a Reuben and Cindy had a burger.

The chili was very good and also very spicy and my chowder was just creamy and delicious. The mac and cheese was mellow, comfort food at its best with stringy and mild cheese and crumbs crispy on the top.

Burgers come in only pink or no pink. Or when we questioned it medium well and medium rare. They have a wide variety of additional toppings, Cindy added blue cheese, portabello mushroom, and caramelized onions. It came on a bulkie roll and chips, you can substitute fries for $1.75.

I didn’t taste Colleen's Reuben but it had thick lean slices of corn beef and looked absolutely yummy. Since she ate it all I am assuming that it indeed was.

We finished up with cups of coffee and pieces of chocolate cake. I wish I could say the cake was divine but it tasted like it was made in an outside bakery and I was left unimpressed. Frankly I thought it looked better than it tasted.

As we were waiting for our food to be delivered someone around us must have had buffalo wings delivered to their table, I had my back to them so I couldn’t see but my nose told me that they would have been worth a try and I hope I will be able to get back to try them.

There are some vegetarian choices including a veggie quesedilla and of course our mac and cheese. They also serve steaks , meat loaf, and a good selection of sandwiches and salads.

Our meals with tip averaged about $20 so we had no complaints and our service was very good.

Located right across the street from the Civic Center this would be an ideal restaurant to choose if you are attending an event at the Center. We actually came here the night of the Christina Aguilera performance but we arrived at 7:30pm when all the ticket holders had already left, I called ahead and was told that after 7:30 we would not need a reservation.

The host remembered my call when the four of us arrived and took us back to a nice booth immediately.

Mayor Mike Peters the former mayor of Hartford opened this restaurant when he finished his term, it is now run by his son and I was very impressed with everything about this place.

The menu is diverse. It choices to fit everyone taste. I was also impressed with the prices which were very competitive considering you are in downtown Hartford in a primo location. With tip all of our dinners ran under $30 per person, granted we didn’t have alcoholic drinks but we did have desserts.

I love mussels and when I saw that they were offered here as an appetizer called Mayor’s Mussels "Sauteed With Shallots, Green Onions, Tomatoes & Roasted Garlic Sauce With A Touch Of Cream"

I decided to pair them up with a Blue Ice salad to make my entrée. It turn out to be a very good choice. The broth was so good that I asked for some bread to soak it up. They brought me a beautiful little hot loaf and I made short shift of it. The Blue Ice was perfect with a wedge of iceberg lettuce surrounded by cherry tomatoes, Gorgonzola cheese, red onion, and toasted pine nuts. The edge of the plate was drizzled with balsamic dressing.

Two of my friends had a chicken and black bean special. It made a very interesting and delicious plate. The other friend had a burger and it was a beauty and perfectly cooked.

Among the entrées we didn’t try was Firehouse pot roast and not your Mama’s Meatloaf, several pasta dishes including eggplant Parmesan, linguine pesce torre and penne vodka. Hanger steak, several chicken dishes, and port tenderloin round out the menu. There are also plenty of sandwiches including a veggie burger, a grilled portobelo sandwich, and also a grilled tuna sandwich..

We decided to finish up with coffee and dessert. My friend and I decided to split the fried caramel cheesecake, yes I said fried cheese cake. Wrapped in a crispy phylo shell the cheesecake just melted in our mouths. The plate had raspberry coulis for dipping in. This was a near perfect dessert. It is also offered in banana. Cindy opted for the key lime pie. It was tart and fresh.

Among the other offering is a chocolate cobbler which from the waitress’ description sounds like what I would call a volcano.

Located in the Marriott Hartford Vivo is a lovely restaurant. The wood is a rich cherry color and there is a definite Latin flare. We received coupons that brought the price of the morning breakfast buffet down to $12 so we decided to give it a try. This price included tax and tip.

We got a nice table right beside the buffet which had the best selection of fresh fruit that I have ever seen. The bowl of berries alone made my day, including large raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries. They were huge and all perfectly ripe. If this was all the fruit it would be quite extraordinary but there were also large bowls of cut up melon, watermelon, and pineapple. There was in addition a bowl of whole fruits, apples, pears, and bananas. You can have an omelet made-to-order which Cindy opted to do. There are many ingredients to choose from and you can add as many as you want. They don’t, however, serve the omelet with toast.

In the hot offerings there were French toast, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, and very good breakfast potatoes made with onions and peppers. In the cold section besides the fruit there was cereal, (small boxes of cherrios, fruit loops etc) homemade granola which I tried, yogurt, bagels, croissants, and muffins. The bagels can be toasted in the toaster that is right beside them.

Drinks are included with the buffet and I decided to have grapefruit juice and coffee. A carafe of coffee was left on the table and our waitress offered refills on the juice. The waitress was able to provide me with honey for my granola which I covered with fresh berries and milk. The granola was really good with plenty of grains and also nice bunches of coconut.

Service was very attentive the first morning, sulky the second. If you don’t want the buffet they offer an a la carte menu as well. On the way out I grabbed a banana which served as a welcome snack at about 1pm. The price of the buffet without the coupon is a bit high but so is the quality of everything offered. The only complaint that I have is that they didn’t offer real maple syrup, come on, who wants fake syrup with a nice thick French toast.

Vivo serves lunch and dinner as well. We stopped in on our last day to have lunch. It was a special occasion as lunch is not usually served on Saturday. They offered us the bar menu.

Two of us had the BLT on sourdough bread served with french fries. It was one of the best BLT's I have ever had. Everything about it was perfect, especially the bread.

The burger on the other hand was offered with a small green salad. We had perfect service at this lunch our waiter could not have been nicer and he kept our drink glass well filled.

When Al and I want to celebrate a special occasion in our lives such as birthdays, anniversaries, and entertaining someone special this is our restaurant of choice. Their specialty is wood fired steaks but their menu is no way limited to these choices. They atmosphere is romantic with subdued lighting and large booths that offer a little privacy. It has that private club feeling with dark wood, a huge fireplace and lots of ambience.

When we are feeling particularly over the top, we begin our meal with the maytag chips. These are homemade potato chips served with maytag. Bleu cheese, jalapeno cheese and a cheese sauce. Yes there are a whole bunch of calories involved but they are so good it is hard not to finish the whole plate. Another favorite of mine is the crab bisque, thick and loaded with crab, it is divine.

Salads are not included with your entrée but are offered. This is something we usually pass on because frankly they are expensive but once in a while I give in to the urge to have the wedge, a large cold wedge of iceberg with blue cheese dressing and chopped tomatoes.

Al loves the cowboy ribeye, an 18oz black Angus steak served with Pico de Gallo and red chili onion straws and Al always gets the salt lick fully loaded baked potato. I always have a terrible time deciding what to have. It is all so good. Sometimes I get the Caribbean grill, a 4-ounce filet mignon, Jamaican chicken and barbecued shrimp served with chipolte mashed and roasted vegetables. Other times I choose the grilled medallions of beef Oscar, lump crab meat, hollandaise sauce with cheddar mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus. I always love their scallops and they are served alone or in combination. On the lower end of their price range they offer a barbecued salmon salad and blackened chicken penne. I have had their pan roasted chicken with a marsala demi glaze which sells for $16.95. They also have awesome crab cakes which you can have as an appetizer or in combination with other items. Really there is something for everyone here. Though not really a family restaurant, children are always welcome and their tastes are catered to as well.

If the restaurant is full and there is a long wait, we opt to sit on the bar area which is beautiful. They have a large martini menu and offer some unusual choices.

My favorite dessert is Pompeii. Don’t look for it on their menu or on their dessert tray, it won’t be there. But for those of us in the know, we can order it every time. Allow 12 minutes for preparation but it will be worth every minute. This decadent little cake of deep dark chocolate will explode like a “volcano” when you cut into it. Out will spill liquid fudge and brandied cherries. It is the best thing I have ever tasted.

Located just around the corner from the Old State House this is considered to be Hartford’s first cemetery. Technically this isn’t true, the first cemetery in Hartford was located about two blocks from this site. The stones from that first cemetery were used in the foundation of some of the old houses in the city.

We signed up for a guided tour of the cemetery by a local cemetery expert as part of our genealogy conference. Obviously this won’t be available to you but don’t despair, there is a brochure that you can use to do a self-guided tour.

What we learned on our tour was a lot about the stone carvers of CT and how to identify who the individual stones were carved by. The stone carvers in Connecticut developed a style of their own quite different from the carvers in Boston and Newport, where the earliest stones were ordered from.

The earliest carvers were the Griswold family of Windsor. They used Bolton stone which was a type of granite that looks like slate. It is a very durable stone and some of these very old ones have fared a lot better in the long haul than the new brownstone and sandstone ones. We found another family of carvers the Johnson's of Portland CT of special interest since I live in Portland and my friend Cindy was born in Portland. They owned the quarries for which Portland is well known from the mid 1700s through the mid-1800s.

For anyone who might be looking for their ancestors in one of these very old cemeteries, be forewarned, most of the stones have been moved to make things align better and in some cases totally moved to other sections so that at this point in time most of the stones have nothing what so ever to do with who may or may not be buried under them.

We also learned that most head stones had a matching foot stone. It gave a good idea of how tall the person who had died was. Many of these foot stones have long since disappeared since they are a nightmare for grounds keepers, making mowing very difficult. They have been very useful in some cases where the headstones no longer exist in making it possible to determine what the stone would have looked like.

There are many reproduction stones in this cemetery as well as memorial stones. There is one to Thomas Hooker who is the founder of Hartford and also a large monument in the center of the cemetery listing the head of the foundering families of Hartford. Not all of them are buried here, just memorialized. There is also a monument to the African American who were buried in this cemetery with no other markers. I was happy to hear that I am not alone in having many family members who have no stone, only about 1/3 of the population was able to afford stones in this cemetery.

This is the most historic building in Hartford and maybe even in all of Connecticut. It has been in turn the State Capitol Building, The City Hall and a Civic Center. Today it still hosts political event since recently our Senator Christopher Dodd announced his candidacy for the Presidency from the Old State House.

Enter the Old State House from the Main St entrance. This will take you by the statue of Thomas Hooker and also by the stocks to remind you of Connecticut’s Puritan heritage. You will enter the building on the second floor, go downstairs to the entrance desk. The fee for touring the State House is $6 for adults and $3 for students and seniors. The fee includes an audio guide which is narrated by not only our governor Jodi Rell but by Senators Joe Lieberman and Chris Dodd and Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez.

This is one of the most historic sites in Hartford. The first meeting house was on this very site and the present building dates from 1796 and is the fourth civic building at this location. After the Revolutionary War Governor Samuel Huntington pushed for a new state house. The previous one had a leaky roof and after a fire that destroyed that roof a new building was constructed. For almost 100 years the state officials carried on their work in this building. By 1878 they had outgrown it and moved to the present State Capitol and in 1879 it became the City Hall. It only took 37 years for the city of Hartford to outgrow it.

In 1989 the State House underwent a major restoration and today it is as gorgeous as it ever was.
The tour beings in the grand hall. This grand hall began its life as an open air market ala Faneuil Hall in Boston. Local farmer and craftsman would have sold their goods right here in the building. In 1921 the city government closed it, added the staircases, chandelier, and black and white marble floor. There is still a farmers market here but now it is out in State House Square.

We visited the room that was the governors office for 79 years. We visited the Senate chamber where senator Joe Lieberman talked about the Gilbert Stuart portrait commissioned in 1802 that still hangs in the building that it was commissioned for, which may make it unique. Chris Dodd tells us that he now occupies the same senate seat once held by Roger Sherman who has the distinction of having signed all four of the founding documents.

In the third floor lobby the original statue of justice which stood atop the cupola for over 100 years has now found a home. The Old State House has been a witness to many historic assemblies from a rally for native son John Brown when he came to CT to raise funds for his cause to protests against the War in Vietnam.