Hartford Ct. Home to Harriet, Hooker and Handguns

Hartford was founded in 1637 by Thomas Hooker and his hearty band of colonist. From the Massachusetts Bay Colony they picked a spot on the Connecticut River to found their "Biblical Utopia". Little of Hooker's Hartford remains today but the Founder's Stone in the Ancient Burying Ground lists the names of those who braved the new frontier.

Insurance is the mainstay of the Hartford economy and has been since Jeremiah Wadsworth founded the first marine insurance company here in the 1780's. Today the Phoenix building is a well known local sight, it was the first two sided building. I have always called it the ship because that is what it looks like. The flashing light atop the Travelers Building is a local beacon, Hartford's version of a lighthouse. Aetna and The Hartford also have large offices downtown.

The Onion Dome of the Colt Manufacturing building is also a local landmark and a reminder that the Colt 45 was been produced in the area for over 150 years.

Quick Tips:

Hartford has lots to offer in the way of arts and culture. The Wadsworth Atheneum was the first public art museum in the United States and over the years has been a leader in the art community. Today they offer temporary exhibits, an eclectic permanent collection and a world class fine arts department.

The Bushnell offers performances of all kinds, including their Broadway series, The Hartford Symphony, The Hartford Ballet and the Hartford Opera. They have just undergone an extensive expansion and have even more to offer.

The Hartford Stage offers exciting new plays, old favorites and almost every year Shakespeare. You can be entertained by the performances of Calista Flockhart as Juliet, Richard Thomas as Richard III and Maureen Stapleton as Eleanor Roosevelt. Mark Lamos has directed many fine productions at the Hartford Stage.

Not to be missed is Nooks Farm where you can find the homes of Mark Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Here in the third quarter of the 19th century they turned Hartford into a glittering literary community.

Best Way To Get Around:

Hartford has a fine bus system and taxis are also available. I however always drive. There is plenty of parking garages available as well as some on street parking. Hartford/Springfield airport is about 15 miles away and transportation is available into Hartford.

After spending about four hours touring the Mark Twain house and the Harriet Beecher house, we were ready for some food. I had heard a staff member giving directions to the pub around the corner so we decided to give it a try. Parking can be difficult on Sisson Avenue so you might want to leave your car at the Mark Twain House and walk. It is only a couple of blocks.

We were greeted by Ben Charlesworth, the bartender, and we took a booth across from the bar. The decor is typical Irish pub with lots of wood and brick. It felt very much like Ireland, all that was missing was the clouds of cigarette smoke, which we didn't miss at all.

We started off with a couple of beers. Al got brave and ordered a Harp Ale. It is a strong ale with a good head. I had a Corona with a wedge of lime. There was Irish music playing as we checked out the menu.

For lunch, they offer a nice variety of from "The Ladle" soups and Kick Arse chili, salads, "Irish" lamb stew, shepherd pie, meatloaf, and "The Loaf" loads of sandwiches. We started our meal with a bowl of pea soup. It was served piping hot with oyster crackers. It was a delicous green pea with hunks of smokey ham floating in the thick broth. The soup was so good, we tried to figure out how to scrape the bottom of the bowl with the crackers.

I had a fantastic corned beef sandwich with swiss cheese, served grilled on marbled rye bread. It was accompanied by a pickle and potato chips. It was the biggest, leanest corn beef sandwich I have ever had. Fantastic doesn't even do it justice; it was better than that.

Al had the Dubliner, a roast beef sandwich and it was packed with rare, juicy slices that overlapped the hand sliced white bread. It had red onions, lettuce, tomato, and onion peppercorn aioli.

For the vegetarian, there is the Veggie Lover's Sandwich, which is rustic bread stuffed with caramelized onions and roasted peppers, covered with melted Monterey jack cheese, lettuce, tomato, and smoked tomato aioli.

There are pictures of Ireland around the pub, as you would expect, and also a sign we particularly liked: "The health of the salmon to you, A long life, a full heart, and a wet mouth." It says it all for me.

Located in the historic Cheney Building at 942 Main Street, City Steam is the perfect place to enjoy a pre- or post-theater libation. Designed by R.R. Richardson, this is one of the finest Romanesque building in the country. Previously the home to the prestigious department store Brown Thompson & Co.,

It now is home to an upscale brew pub and a weekend comedy club.

We choose to dine at the bar over its several dining rooms. It has a relaxed atmosphere, a bright wall mural,

big-screen TVs, and of course, copper brewing vats. The tables are all wood and the seats are bar stools.

You can begin by choosing one of their own brews, which I did, like The Naughty Nurse, or one of their specialty martinis, which the girls chose. The Naughty Nurse is amber ale, slightly bitter with a deep color and hearty aroma; it was also, I thought, slightly flat. It was good nonetheless, but perhaps it could be great. Kasey had a Strawberry Starburst Martini, which tastes like a very adult watermelon jolly rancher. Inez had a Lady Slipper, which is banana liquor, Godiva white, and a splash of hazelnut. They loved them. Irene had Bourbon on the rocks.

The menu offers plenty of appetizer choices, salads, sandwiches, their brew house specialty, and stone-baked pizza. We began with an appetizer of crackling calamari,

served with both tartar and marinara sauce. Their calamari is excellent here; the crust is light and the calamari tender, a superior rendition. Among their other offerings is a giant pretzel served with mustard and seared Ahi tuna, sliced and served over wasabi greens with a lemongrass dipping sauce.

For our dinner we all chose sandwiches, I chose the chipotle pulled pork, served with melted cheese and onion frizzles on a hard roll with coleslaw on the side.

A word here about their coleslaw: it is spectacular, it’s not like anything you get elsewhere, it is Asian-inspired and delicious. The pork has very good flavor and was tender; my only complaint was that it is served without any sauce, and there really isn’t any sauce on it. Again, it is good, but it could be great. It just falls a little short. Inez had the fresh turkey panini, and it looked wonderful; Irene had the vegetarian melt, which again looked great; and Kasey had the gorgonzola burger, slightly undercooked but delicious.

However, besides the drinks, what keeps us coming back is Lisa’s pie.

It is absolutely to die for – a mile-high coconut ice-cream pie with a layer of macaroons, an Oreo crust, and a fudge sauce base. I can’t begin to tell you how good this is, and next time, we aren't sharing!

The Mark Twain House can only be visited on a guided tour which takes about 40 minutes. Entrance is $9 for adults and $7 for youth and children over 5.

In the entrance lobby we are introduced to the Paige Compositor which played such an important role in the later years of the Clemens's family. The money he lost forced him to tour the world.

Samuel Clemens better know as the writer Mark Twain came to Hartford in 1874. He and his wife Olivia had been living in Buffalo New York but after the death of their son Langdon they couldn't bear to stay there anymore. You will probably be as suprised as I was to learn that the house was in Olivia's name. In 1874 she was better off financially than him. He had yet to write his most famous works, most of which were written in the 17 years he lived in this house. The Clemens had 3 daughters Clara, Susie and Jean and this is above all, a family home.

Sam's room was the billiard room on the third floor. Here he could escape to his all male sanctum. He could write, entertain or stroll onto his porch for a smoke. When he didn't want to be home to visitors he would go out onto the porch and the guest could be truthfully told that he had stepped out.

One interesting fact I remember is that he was born the year Halley's comet came and died when it came again.

The tour begins outdoors and we are brought through the front door as if we were guests. The house is beautifully decorated in Victorian style. They do a good job of recreating the atmosphere of 100 years ago.

The parlor was made to impress guests. The stenciling is done in real silver. Because it was December there were Christmas decorations up and under the piano was was a trunk of doll cloths that really belonged to the Clemens daughters.

In the dining room there is a large centerpiece on the table that was used at Sam and Olivia's wedding. Most of the furniture in the house is not original, it was sold at the time the house was sold. Off the library there is a conservatory that was suggested by Harriet Beecher Stow who wasa great believer in terrariums and indoor plants.

Every Christmas the Clemens family would go out in their sleigh, with Samuel dressed in a red jacket and beard , to deliver food baskets to needy family around Hartford.

The house itself is much like any upper middle class home of it's time but if you are a lover of Mark Twain's books then you will find this a facinating insight into the real man Samuel Clemens.

The house has a very nice gift shop.

It is located off I-84 and has a large, free parking lot.

Harriet Beecher Stowe, the woman who made such an impact on our country with her book Uncle Tom's cabin was a woman ahead of her time. She began writing to supplement her husband's income and the book began as a newspaper serial in installments. It was meant to be only 3 or 4 and ran for 42. The original manuscript was 850 pages. Five of the original pages are at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, the rest are spread all over the country and the world. Many were just given away by Harriet.

You begin your visit at the center. Here you sign up for a tour which are run as often as they have guides to take them. We had to wait about half an hour. There is a video to watch about her life and the house and also a visual display for you to read. it gives a lot of information on Harriet and on the impact of Uncle Tom's Cabin.

The fact that she wrote 30 other books seems to be forgotten . One that she wrote with her sister is called 'The American Woman's Home" and is full of innovative ideas for the housewife of the 1860's. Many of her ideas are things we take for granted today. Her kitchen designs were revolutionary in their time but make perfect sense to us.

Out guide to the house was "Sunshine" and even though she was very young her love of the house was evident from her first words. We entered from the front door into the parlor and are greeted by the embodiment of Harriet's philosophy. She believed that light walls were peaceful and her window treatments are very unvictorian. She doesn't have heavy drapes but rather has open windows that allow light in. On one window she has vines growing up the window to give a little privacy.

Throughout the house we see evidence of "Tomitude", souvenirs that were made using Uncle Tom. Little Eva , Simon Legree and other charecters from Uncle Tom in a variety of mediums, on pitchers, lamps, statues, plates and much more.

Harriet was a multi-talented woman. We see many of her paintings throughout the house. She was the mother of 7 children, wife , daughter and sister of ministers. She painted her furniture with decorative designs and also painted her own china set.

Harriet should certainly be remembered as the woman who wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin and set the fuse that becam the civil war but to stop there is to do her a grave disservice. One thing this tour will make you want to do is read more of her works and get top know her better.

Admission is $6.50 for adults and $2.75 for children. There is a small gift shop in the center and parking is in the lot at the Mark Twain House.

As part of the entrance fee you also get to visit the Day House.

The Wadsworth Athenuem is one of Connecticut's treasures. It was founded in 1842 and is the oldest public art museum in the United States. It has received numerous bequests making it a world class museum. They have one of the finest Hudson River School collections anywhere.

We began our tour in the Susan Moore Hilles Gallery. It is a temporary gallery set up for the Italian and Spanish paintings. You are greeted by a large Zurbaran painting of St Serapion. He was martyred for teaching Christianity to the Moslems and yet his robe is spotless, you can see he is hanging by his wrists but his face is peaceful. It is a disturbing picture.

This galley has some wonderful paintings set on light blue walls with great lighting. You will see work by Tintoretto, Bassano, Murillo and Caravaggio. Also some fine examples of Meissen porcelain. There are two views of Venice, one by Canaletto and one by Guardi and a beautiful country scene by Canaletto's nephew Bellotto.T

After this room you would imagine that the rest of the museum would pale, you would be wrong. From here we went to the fountain courtyard where there are some paintings lining the courtyard. There are 2 by Edvard Munch that are interesting.

Off the courtyard is a room dedicated to Alexander Calder. There are several of his sculptures here including the large one outside the museum entitled Stegasaurus. A small model of stagasaurus is in the Calder room.

I was entralled with a Salvatore Dali oil called 'Solitude". It is a very muted painting of a man walking alone, across the painting is a boat with 2 children sitting in it that appears stranded in the sand and in the background a very etherial woman seems to float. The only color is a broken vase in the foreground. Very thought provoking.

The furniture collections here is outstanding. There is several rooms of Pilgrim furniture. Chests, tables and chairs from the 17th century in New England. Some of them have original paint on them, amazing. What really suprised me was the detail on the wood. I expected the furniture of the Pilgrims to be plain and unadorned. I was wrong. The carving is beautiful and the legs have wonderful turnings. There are items made of red oak, white pine and ash.

Back to the art, there is a whole wall of Peale family painings. There are 3 still lifes and 3 portraits. There are several rooms of American landscape paintings with Niagara Falls as a favorite subject.

The John Singer Sargent portrait of Ruth Sears Bacon is a lovely painting of a lovely child.

For me the Lucas Cranach od the Feast of Herod is a favorite. If you know any of his works you will recognize Salome as the learing wife with the elderly husband in another of his paintings.

Entrance $7.
Hours: Tuesday- Friday 11am-5pm
Saturday & Sunday 10-5