by Erik Dodge

Created on: August 31, 2009   Last Updated: April 18, 2011

When Reverend Horace Bushnell proposed what has become known as Bushnell Park in 1853 he described his vision as "an opening in the heart of the city... a place where children play... a place for holiday scenes and celebrations... where rich and poor will exchange looks and make acquaintance through the eyes... a place of life and motion that will make us more completely conscious of being one people,".

His proposal came in a time of drastic change for the town of Hartford, Connecticut. Hartford's population doubled from 1850 to 1860 as it experienced the benefits of the booming industrial revolution economy. These benefits were accompanied by crime, crowded housing, poverty, pollution and poor sanitation, which fueled the concern of community leaders. In response to the growing need for open space in Hartford, Reverend Horace Bushnell proposed the creation of the first public park in any city in America to be paid for through public funds.

The suggested area for the park was incomparable to the scenic, serene, green space it would become. At the time of Bushnell's proposal the suggested site contained two leather tanneries, pigsties and other livestock, a soap works and a garbage dump. Industrial waste polluted the Park River, which was also lined on both sides with overcrowded tenements whose outhouses dumped directly into the river's waters. Reverend Bushnell described the location as "hell without the fire".

Despite the unappealing condition of the site, Bushnell's presentation in October 1853 convinced the Hartford City Council to unanimously approve the park in November of the same year. The City Council approved spending $105,000 in public funds to purchase the land that would become Bushnell Park. On January 5, 1854 Hartford residents voted to approve the City Council's decision to purchase the park 1,687 to 683. This made Bushnell Park the first municipal park in the country to be conceived, constructed and financed by citizens through popular vote.

By 1860 the park was still yet to come together and it was becoming clear that new direction was necessary. Reverend Bushnell asked his life-long friend Frederick Olmsted, a Hartford native and famous designer of New York's Central Park, to design the park. Olmsted, who was in the middle of designing Central Park and could not fulfill Bushnell's request, suggested Jacob Weidenmann. Weidenmann was a Swiss born architect and botanist.

The 1861 plan, created by Weidenmann, was marked by an uncommonly natural

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