Stucco Italianate house with towers, one with an ogee-shaped dome, finials and a glass atrium. Vines grow on the porch at the far right. Shrubs and plants grow in a garden at the left. An ornamental urn is nearby. A circular driveway surrounds a grassy lawn with a sculpture of a man on a horse. Small bedding plants are in a round garden in the foreground. Two horses in harness are in the right background. Inscribed on back: "Home of Mrs. Colt / Wethersfield Avenue" "Wethersfield Avenue / Armsmere [sic] / The home of Col. & Mrs. Samuel Colt. The old house has been turned into apartments and very much changed. Mrs. Colt willed 'Armsmere' to the Diocese of Connecticut and many Episcopal Clergymen's widows and families / now live there."

Erected in 1857 for Samuel and Elizabeth Colt and attributed to the architect Octavius J. Jordan, Armsmear was the grandest residence in Hartford in its day. The house was altered after Elizabeth Colt died in 1909 to serve as a residence for the widows of Episcopalian ministers.

1899

Wethersfield Avenue (Hartford, Conn.)

Dwellings
Flower gardens
Atriums

photographs

Colt, Elizabeth H.
Colt, Samuel, 1814-1862
Jordan, Octavius J., 1825- ?

Source extent: 1 photographic print ; 11 x 17 cm.

Reproduction and copyright information regarding this image is available from The Graphics Collection, The Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford.

Accession number 1956.84.33
2828 img0051.pcd

http://hdl.handle.net/11134/40002:14992