Bushnell Park

East 18.94acres
West 18.05 acres
Total: 36.99 acres

1 Playscape
1 Swing Set
1 Pond

As the premier park central to the core of the City of Hartford, Bushnell Park was indeed the visual point of reference for the City from 1860 for three decades of intense use and pleasure, through the 1890s. The Bushnell Park area was an eminent domain acquisition about the same time that South Green (Barnard Park) became park land by assumption, after decades of use as an historic common. The Park was one of the earliest public parks in the nation to be planned and built by a municipality as a graceful pastoral landscape rather than a formal European garden or New England square. It has been an important gathering place, recreation ground and green city space for over 130 years. Perhaps as important, the park serves as the landscape setting for the State Capital. The park was listed on the national Register of Historic Places on October 22, 1970.