$1 million earmarked for ‘endangered’ historic buildings in Hartford’s Colt Park

In Hartford’s historic 106-acre Colt Park, two long-vacant buildings formally owned by wealthy industrialist Samuel Colt are about to get a major boost from $1 million in federal money.

Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, flanked by U.S. Rep. John Larson, Coltsville National Historical Park Superintendent Kelly Fellner, Colt Park Foundation Chair Donna Swarr, and Coltsville Heritage Partnership Chair Lynn Ferrari, announced the grant to restore the Colt Gardener’s Cottage and Carriage House and integrate the buildings into the Coltsville National Historical Park.

“Part of our collective commitment is protecting, restoring, and celebrating the history that is here,” Bronin said at a press conference on Friday. “Colt Park is part of the magnificent park system we have in this city and this place has so much history.”

The park, part of the former estate of Samuel Colt and his wife Elizabeth, was the last major addition to the city’s park system in 1905. In 1976, the park was first recognized as a historic place and in 2008, it became part of the Coltsville Historic District, which is registered as a National Historic Landmark District. In 2014, the U.S. Congress and President Barack Obama authorized the creation of the Coltsville National Historical Park, which includes Colt Park, according to the National Park Service.

The Gardener’s Cottage and Carriage House, both built around 1860, served as important buildings on Colt’s former Armsear Estate. The park, all part of Colt’s former property, had several large gardens and greenhouses that housed flowers and plants from every continent in the world, according to the National Park Service. The gardener on the property, whose job was to maintain the grounds and upkeep of the greenhouses, lived in the separate gardener’s cottage. The carriage house was home to Colt’s personal horses, the main mode of transportation around the city in the 19th century, according to the NPS.

“These structures are magnificent examples for architecture of the time,” Bronin said. “But these structures, like so many other historic buildings around our city, state, and country, have not received the investment they need to preserve and protect that history.”

Larson, who played a key role in helping Coltsville become part of the National Park system in 2014, said that the funds for the buildings were over two-decades in the making. The federal dollars earmarked for the project will go mostly towards stabilizing and protecting the structures, according to Larson.

“Samuel Colt gets a lot of the credit, but it was Elizabeth who really deserves it,” Larson said. “What she did for the area is incredible, especially that it was done by such a visionary woman that didn’t even have a right to vote at the time. When you take a look around and drive through here, this is a gem for the entire nation, in the heart of the manufacturing center of the country.”

Bronin called the $1 million a start to ensure the buildings will remain standing for generations to come, but acknowledged more work would be needed in the future to fully repurpose and rehabilitate them.

“But both the carriage house and the gardener’s house need investment just to protect and stabilize them. We need to make sure we are stopping them from deteriorating further and fully redevelop and reuse them while protecting their history,” Bronin said.

“These two buildings have been on the endangered list for a long time,” Fellner said. “In 2021, we were able to bring the National Park Service’s historic architecture and conservation branch to come here and do some assessments of the buildings, which played a role in the proposal. When these buildings are rehabilitated it’s going to be a wonderful backdrop to Colt Park.”

Bronin said there is no precise timeline yet for construction to begin on stabilizing the structures.