The Story of Coltsville

Hartford, Connecticut

 

Samuel Colt’s legendary revolving firearms were manufactured here in the South Meadows factory complex that Colt reclaimed from the Connecticut River flood plain in 1855. In one of the boldest real estate development campaigns in Hartford's history, Colt acquired and surrounded 250 acres of land with two miles of dyke to protect against flooding. Here, by 1856, Colt built and occupied: the largest Armory in the world (500' long and 4 stories tall), worker's housing, wharf and ferry facilities on the Connecticut River, and a gathering place named "Charter Oak Hall" for the instruction and amusement of his employees. Crowning the hilltop in the northwest corner of the complex was "Armsmear", the enormous Italian Villa dream house Colt built for himself and his new bride Elizabeth Hart Jarvis in 1857. At the time of Colt's death in 1862, the factory village had expanded to include additional worker's housing, stables and greenhouses, a cartridge works, the Union Ferry Co. connecting Hartford and East Hartford and a separate factory - Colt's Willow Works - that manufactured wicker furniture along Curcombe St. The Armory produced one thousand arms a day. It was burned – reputedly by Southern arsonists - during the Civil War. The factory was rebuilt (1868) by Colt’s widow Elizabeth Jarvis Colt and remains to this day the most tangible evidence of this once great industrial empire. The Church of the Good Shepherd (1868) and Caldwell Colt Memorial Parish Hall (1894), at the north end of Coltsville, were built as family memorials by Elizabeth Colt. Mrs. Colt founded a Sunday school for the armory workmen in 1859. After Sam Colt's death in 1862, she began planning for a grand memorial church. It was completed and opened in 1869 at a cost of more than $175,000. At the time it was described as "the Finest Church in America." Its ornamentation, layout and stained glass were remarkable and reflect the most advanced capabilities of the age. Following her death in 1905, Elizabeth Colt willed the gardens and grounds at Armsmear to the City of Hartford to be developed as Colt Park. Almost from the beginning, Colt employed lots of young German, Irish, and English immigrant labor. The Willow Works (founded in 1859) was staffed entirely by immigrants recruited by Colt from Bavaria, Prussia, Austria and Switzerland. The willow workers lived in “Colt's Swiss cottages,” a row of stylish brick tenements (many still standing) built at the south end of Coltsville. By 1860, Hartford's immigrant community had developed its own social clubs and recreations, including singing societies and 37 "beer rooms." Colt's Armory Band (organized in 1855) was widely acclaimed. It was managed by FEW Dunkel, a German pistol-maker. Its musicians performed in uniforms made by a German tailor and modeled after the uniforms of Prussian Riflemen. When the first of three sets of brick Worker's Tenements was occupied in April 1856, German, English and Irish families lived side-by-side in Colt's Factory Village. Colt’s Armory and the factory village was a model of the industrial age. Renowned for its technological innovation it was also an experiment in urban development and social reform that changed the world of work and earned Hartford a reputation as a mecca for high tech innovation.