Coltsville & the Colt Armory

Hartford is called the Insurance Capital, but in the nineteenth century it was an industrial powerhouse as well, and the Colt Armory is the best place to see the evidence. Samuel Colt built his revolver factory along the Connecticut River in the 1850s, topped it with a distinctive blue onion-shaped dome decorated with stars and a rampant colt, and constructed a planned community around it with worker housing, a church, a park and a hall for community events. The result was a company town unlike any other, and in 2014 the site became Coltsville National Historical Park, part of the National Park System. The brick factory complex, the Church of the Good Shepherd that Colt's widow Elizabeth built as a memorial, Colt Park and the surrounding streets of worker houses together tell a story about mass production, interchangeable parts, innovation and the social experiment of the company town.

Visiting Coltsville is a little different from visiting a classic museum. The park is still being developed, and the experience depends on what the National Park Service and the property's owners have opened at the time of your visit. Ranger programs, walking tours and special events have been offered, and exhibits on the history of the factory and the neighborhood are the core of the story.

The best advice is to check the National Park Service page for current programs before you go, and to treat the visit as a walk around a living historic neighborhood rather than a ticketed tour of a single building.

The landmarks are easy to see from the street. The blue dome is visible across the Hartford skyline, the long brick factory ranges show the scale of the operation, and the Church of the Good Shepherd, with its decorative arrangements of firearms-inspired details, is one of the most unusual churches in New England. Colt Park, a large green space on the former Colt estate, has playing fields, paths and a walk through the rest of the grounds. The Colt family mansion called Armsmear stands nearby but is not open as a museum.

Coltsville fits best with a day that explores the industrial and design heritage of Hartford. Combine it with the Connecticut Science Center, the riverfront and the Mark Twain House, since Twain was an investor in several Hartford inventions and the city's inventors, publishers and insurers shaped his era. Wear comfortable shoes, bring water in summer, and keep in mind that the surrounding neighborhood is a working-class district where ordinary city manners apply.

Families with older children who are interested in history will find the story of Colt's factory more engaging than it sounds, because it ties together weapons, inventions, labor and early advertising in a remarkably vivid way.

Cyclists and runners will find the riverfront trails close by, and the Connecticut River greenway offers a pleasant route from the Colt district toward downtown. Parking near the Armory is straightforward on weekends, while weekdays can be busier because the buildings house offices and other tenants. Bring a camera, because the blue dome against a clear sky is one of the most characteristic images of the city. The riverside park nearby is a good place for a picnic once you have finished walking the streets.