Armsmear
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Samuel Colt Home
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Armsmear
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| Location: | 80 Wethersfield Avenue, Hartford, Connecticut |
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| Coordinates: | 41°45′13.89″N 72°40′29.03″W / 41.7538583°N 72.6747306°WCoordinates: 41°45′13.89″N 72°40′29.03″W / 41.7538583°N 72.6747306°W |
| Built: | 1855 |
| Architectural style: | Italianate |
| Governing body: | Private |
| NRHP Reference#: | 66000802 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP: | November 13, 1966[1] |
| Designated NHL: | November 13, 1966[2] |
Armsmear ("meadow of arms"), also known as the Samuel Colt Home, is a historic house located at Hartford, Connecticut. It was the family home of firearm manufacturer Samuel Colt and is now a National Historic Landmark.[2]
Armsmear was planned for Colt's 1856 marriage to Elizabeth Hart Jarvis, and constructed in 1856 to designs by an unknown architect, possibly local architect Octavius Jordan or factory engineer H. A. G. Pomery, on grounds overlooking the recently completed Colt Armory. It was described by a contemporary thus: "an Italian villa in stone, massive, noble, refined, yet not carrying out any decided principle of architecture, it is like its originator, bold and unusual in its combinations." It features a low-pitched roof, heavy bracketed cornice, round-arched doors and windows, iron balconies, Italianate tower and details, and Turkish domes and pinnacles.
The Colts occupied Armsmear in 1857 and promptly began to develop its gardens. Landscape architects Cleveland and Copeland provided the plans. Unusual, glass-domed conservatories, inspired by London's Crystal Palace, were added in 1861-1862. Ultimately the estate contained some 2,600 feet (790 m) of greenhouses, as well as ponds, fountains, and a deer park.
After Elizabeth Colt died in 1905, the house was converted to a home for Episcopalian women (in 1911) under the terms of her will. She also gave 140 acres (57 ha) of Armsmear's grounds to create Hartford's Colt Park. The city has subsequently replaced the greenhouse, garden, and ponds with ball fields and a skating rink.
[edit] References
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2007-01-23. http://nrhp.focus.nps.gov/natreg/docs/All_Data.html.
- ^ a b "Samuel Colt Home". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=611&ResourceType=Building. Retrieved 2007-09-30.
[edit] Sources
- Historic American Buildings Survey
- Phillip M. Johnston, "Dialogues between Designer and Client: Furnishings Proposed by Leon Marcotte to Samuel Colt in the 1850s", Winterthur Portfolio, Vol. 19, No. 4 (Winter, 1984), pp. 257–275.
- Hartford Botanical Garden: Colt Gardens History
- Barnard, Henry (ed), Armsmear: The Home, The Arm, and the Armory of Samuel Colt, Alvord, New York 1866.
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