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Capitol of the State of Connecticut

  • 30 minutes Walking
  • Hartford

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Stop #1: Capitol of the State of Connecticut

Richard Michell Upjohn

The State of Connecticut made Hartford the permanent location of its Capitol in 1872. In a competition of thirteen architects, Richard Upjohn's Victorian Gothic design was chosen. Upjohn also provided the comprehensive historical program for the sculpture.

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Stop #2: Capitol Sculpture, North Facade: Early Colonial Connecticut and Founding Fathers

Herbert Adams, Hermon Atkins MacNeil, Paul Wayland Bartlett, Richard E. Brooks

The North Façade of the Capitol Building depicts early prominent figures of Connecticut’s history. The statues represent the earliest period of Connecticut’s history beginning in the 16th century, and the portrait medallions represent a later era of American history, the 19th and 20th centuries.

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Stop #3: Capitol Sculpture, West Facade: American Revolutionary Leaders in CT

Hermon Atkins MacNeil, Richard Michell Upjohn

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Stop #4: Capitol Sculpture, South Wing: Connecticut Heroes of the Civil War Era

Hermon Atkins MacNeil

The South Wing of the Capitol, above the covered arrival porch, was intended to have portrait statues of Connecticut's leading heroes of the Civil War.

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Stop #5: Capitol Sculpture, East Facade: Revolutionary War and the Founding of the Republic

Carl H. Conrads, Charles D. Salewski, Charles Henry Niehaus, Chauncey B. Ives, Richard Michell Upjohn

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Stop #6: College Hill and the Original Trinity College Campus

Richard Michell Upjohn

The College Hill campus was the original campus of Trinity College, then called Washington College until 1845. The college moved their campus to Gallows Hill in the late 19th century because of a feud between New Haven and Hartford trying to establish themselves as the official State Capitol. Hartford decided to buy Trinity College’s downtown campus as a spot for a new capitol building in the heart of the city.

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The Connecticut State Capitol in Hartford stands on College Hill, so named for Trinity College which originally stood on this site which rises above the flood plain of the Park River which originally flowed through what is today Bushnell Park. Qv. The new State Capitol building was designed by architect Richard Upjohn qv. and was completed by 1879. The Capitol project also called for a complex sculptural program recounting episodes in Connecticut history and recognizing its leading citizens from the earliest settlement by Thomas Hooker in 1636 to the soldier-citizens of the American Civil War. The Capitol building with its myriad sculptures is the single largest constellation of public art in Connecticut

The Stops

Starting at stop #1, this Walking tour is miles long.

Select a stop to start the tour and learn more:

  1. Capitol of the State of Connecticut
  2. Capitol Sculpture, North Facade: Early Colonial Connecticut and Founding Fathers
  3. Capitol Sculpture, West Facade: American Revolutionary Leaders in CT
  4. Capitol Sculpture, South Wing: Connecticut Heroes of the Civil War Era
  5. Capitol Sculpture, East Facade: Revolutionary War and the Founding of the Republic
  6. College Hill and the Original Trinity College Campus