Armsmear ("meadow of arms"), also known as the
Samuel Colt Home, is a historic house located at
Hartford, ConnecticutHartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located in Hartford County on the Connecticut River, north of the center of the state, south of Springfield, Massachusetts. Its 2006 population of 124,512 ranks Hartford as the state's second-largest city, after Bridgeport. New...
. It was the family home of firearm manufacturer
Samuel ColtSamuel Colt was an American inventor and industrialist. He was the founder of Colt's Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company , and is widely credited with popularizing the revolver. Colt's innovative contributions to the weapons industry have been described by arms historian James E...
and is now a
National Historic LandmarkA National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance. All NHLs are listed in the National Register of Historic Places...
.
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 ArmoryThe Colt Armory is a historic factory complex for the manufacture of firearms, created by Samuel Colt. It is located in Hartford, Connecticut along the Connecticut River, and as of 05 December 2007 is part of the Coltsville Historic District, named a National Historic Landmark...
.
Armsmear ("meadow of arms"), also known as the
Samuel Colt Home, is a historic house located at
Hartford, ConnecticutHartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located in Hartford County on the Connecticut River, north of the center of the state, south of Springfield, Massachusetts. Its 2006 population of 124,512 ranks Hartford as the state's second-largest city, after Bridgeport. New...
. It was the family home of firearm manufacturer
Samuel ColtSamuel Colt was an American inventor and industrialist. He was the founder of Colt's Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company , and is widely credited with popularizing the revolver. Colt's innovative contributions to the weapons industry have been described by arms historian James E...
and is now a
National Historic LandmarkA National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance. All NHLs are listed in the National Register of Historic Places...
.
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 ArmoryThe Colt Armory is a historic factory complex for the manufacture of firearms, created by Samuel Colt. It is located in Hartford, Connecticut along the Connecticut River, and as of 05 December 2007 is part of the Coltsville Historic District, named a National Historic Landmark...
. 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
bracketedA bracket is an architectural member made of wood, stone, or metal that overhangs a wall to support or carry weight. It may also support a statue, the spring of an arch, a beam, or a shelf. Brackets are often in the form of scrolls, and can be carved, cast, or molded. They can be entirely...
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 CopelandCleveland and Copeland were a noted American landscape architecture firm.The firm was organized by Horace William Shaler Cleveland and Robert Morris Copeland...
provided the plans. Unusual, glass-domed conservatories, inspired by London's
Crystal PalaceDesigned by Joseph Paxton, the Great Exhibition building was long, with an interior height of .After the exhibition, the building was moved to a new park in a high, healthy and affluent area of London called Sydenham Hill, an area not much changed today from the well-heeled suburb full of large...
, were added in 1861-1862. Ultimately the estate contained some 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 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.
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.