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Hartford
Founding English Settlement:
1636 
Dutchman Adrien Block explored the CT River in
1614, and established a trading post in Hartford in 1623,
following the European epidemic that destroyed a majority of the
native population.
Englishman the Rev. Thomas Hooker lead English colonists fleeing religious
persecution in Boston here,
driving the Dutch out and renaming the settlement after Hertford,
England.
About 48 property owners were located between
what is now Main Street and the Connecticut River.
The Little River (now the Park River) divided the city north and
south.
Dutch and Native American property are also shown.
Click map for enlargement.
Hartford
- Pre-Revolutionary
Period: 1755 -
1766
Below are the Thomas Jefferies map of the northeast, 1755,
and
the Miles Park map executed for the Earl of Shelborne, His Majesty's Secretary of
State -
"The Colony of Connecticut, North America, 1766".
In pre-revolutionary CT, Hartford is the crossing point for the post road going up the east
and west side of the
CT River into Massachusetts, through Springfield to Boston and south
through New Haven,
then west to Danbury and south to New York.
The shoreline post road goes to Providence, R.I.
These historic post roads mirror present-day I-91 inland and
I-95 along the shore.
Click to enlarge.
The original footprint for Hartford included
present-day West
Hartford, East Hartford and Manchester.
East Hartford will split off in 1783, including Manchester which
will incorporate in 1823.
West Hartford is part of Hartford for the first 215 years, until
1854.
The meeting house and two churches are shown in Hartford:
currently Center Church and South Congregational.
Hartford
Revolutionary
Period:
1776 - 1796
By 1776, the beginning of the Revolution, the
major roads in the state appear much as they did twenty years
earlier.
A map dated 1780 shows
Farmington Avenue extending from Hartford all the way to
Fairfield.
West Hartford, East Hartford and Manchester are still part of
Hartford.
A 1796 map by Bohn shows the Wells Ferry crossing at
Hartford.
In addition, four roads fan out from Hartford (Albany, Asylum,
Farmington and New Britain avenues).
In addition to the town center, there are four grist mills, 2 saw mills, an oil mill and a paper
mill in Hartford.
Hartford
British Embargo
1811
By 1811, the core city has spread a block east
to the river
and two blocks north and west of Main as well as properties along
Washington Street and Maple Ave.
The Warren map shows only three grist mills in the city, a
reduction in small manufacturing compared to 15 years
before.
This is a period of British embargo spurring small manufacturing
everywhere throughout New England. But Hartford has
developed as a major shipping port - the most northerly navigable
point in the CT River.
Now eight major roads form the routes to towns outside of the City
of Hartford.
The first bridge across the CT River at Hartford was built the
year before, in 1810. It was an uncovered bridge made of
wood. It will be washed away in the flooding of 1818, and
replaced with a covered bridge.
Click map for enlargement.
Hartford
Industrial
Revolution begins
1855
Samuel Colt builds his factory in
Hartford in 1855. By now, city development has spread west
out to Flower Street.
There are thirteen homes located in what is now the West End, which is mostly flat farmland
divided by whitewashed wooden
fences. There are three new streets in the neighborhood:
Asylum, Bloomfield and Prospect avenues - all
major routes from the city to other towns.
The year before, West Hartford split off and
incorporated as a separate town,
with Hartford's west boundary Prospect Avenue.
The railroad from Hartford to New Haven, which opened in 1839,
skirts downtown and connects with a spur
to steamship service from the Hartford dock to New York.
By 1844,
the line connected to Boston and by 1848 it connected to New York.
The path of the railway will define the highway footprint
constructed 100 years later.
Hartford - the
end of the Civil War:
1869
Fifteen years later, the city has expanded west
into the current Asylum Hill neighborhood. It is 4 years
after the Civil War, and Hartford is still a major port city -
with 22 piers. Bushnell Park has just been built.
Harriett Beecher Stowe, world famous author of Uncle Tom's
Cabin (1851), moves to "Nook Farm" in Hartford
in1873.
Mark Twain builds his house next door to her in 1874, and
publishes Tom Sawyer two years later.
There are only 10 more houses in the West End - now totaling
23,
and one more street has been added in the neighborhood - Sisson
Avenue.
The area, known as "Middle District' is still mostly
farmland.
Next year, Eugene Kenyon will build a farm house (now 70 Kenyon)
with a path leading to it.
It will be the first home in the neighborhood built off of the
avenues.
Click map for enlargement, or click for pdf
file.
Hartford
- A Gilded Age: 1896
The covered bridge across the
CT River burned in 1895. The current Bulkeley Bridge is a stone arch bridge
that opened in
1908 and is one of the oldest bridges in use by the interstate
highway system (I-84).
Click map for enlargement, or click for pdf
file.
1909
Hartford West End
Click map for enlargement, or click for pdf
file.
Many thanks to the Hartford
Preservation Alliance for loaning the original
maps.
Maps digitized by C. West Designs.
1636 map appears in the
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