Bushnell Park
The First Publicly Funded Park In The United States, Voted For By Hartford Citizens In 1854; 50 Acres Below The State Capitol Holding The 1886 Soldiers And Sailors Memorial Arch And A 1914 Stein And Goldstein Carousel · Hartford, Connecticut
In 1854 the citizens of Hartford voted to tax themselves to buy forty acres of riverside slum and turn it into a park, which had never been done in the United States before - Central Park was laid out three years later on land the city already owned. Bushnell Park is therefore the first publicly funded park in the country, and it still occupies fifty acres directly below the State Capitol, whose gold dome is the backdrop to everything in it. Two things on it are worth the walk. The Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch of 1886 is a brownstone triumphal arch commemorating the Hartford dead of the Civil War and is thought to be the first such memorial arch in America. The 1914 carousel is one of only three surviving Stein and Goldstein machines, with forty-eight hand-carved horses and a Wurlitzer band organ, and it costs almost nothing to ride. The park is five minutes walk from the Wadsworth Atheneum and ten from the Old State House, which is the argument for treating downtown Hartford as one walk rather than three drives.
Jewell Street, Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut, 06103, United States
The park is public open space, open at all hours and free, though the sensible hours are daylight. THE CAROUSEL IS SEASONAL and keeps its own reduced schedule, generally spring to autumn and often Tuesday to Sunday, closed for the winter. The Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch can be climbed on occasional announced days only, not on demand. Concerts and events run on the lawn through the summer.