Hartford has been a city for over 350 years and it has kept more of that than most. The Wadsworth Atheneum is the oldest public art museum in the country. Connecticut’s Old State House is the oldest state house anywhere in it. Mark Twain wrote Huckleberry Finn in a house here, and it is open.
Hartford is not only the capital of Connecticut but also one of the oldest cities in the United States.
Hartford has been standing for more than 350 years and it wears the age well. The city has kept growing through all of it, and on current form it will keep going a good while longer.
In the late 19th century Hartford was the wealthiest and most prosperous city in the country. Downtown still shows it, in the high-rise buildings, apartments and condominiums that went up on the back of that money.
Those buildings tower over you as you walk between them, alongside the large corporations that occupy most of them now. This is the part of the city for anyone who wants a busy downtown and a long list of places to eat and drink.
For the history instead, what follows is the Hartford museums worth a full day.
Hartford also carries a good deal of green space, art museums, street art and the sort of attractions that only exist where a city has kept its own character.
Read the list below for the best things to do and places to visit in Hartford, Connecticut.
Beyond Van Gogh Hartford
The immersive Van Gogh exhibition brings over 300 works by Vincent Van Gogh to Hartford.
The multimedia presentation puts Van Gogh’s paintings at the center of Hartford, “The Starry Night” and “Sunflowers” among them.
Alongside the famous night and daylight scenes are the portraits and lesser-known paintings that millions of visitors have now seen this way.
Digital art has changed how people see painting, and Beyond Van Gogh Hartford makes the case for it. It is a different way of encountering art, and it puts a well-known painter in front of people who would not have gone to a gallery.
What you walk into is animation, traditional painting and modern projection working together.
The paintings move and fill the room with color and detail on a scale the originals never had.
The digital side is the draw, and the written material is what makes the visit land. Read the snippets on Van Gogh’s life, his work and his family, and the real journal and letters, and the paintings change shape.
Nothing in the written record humanises Van Gogh quite the way this presentation does.
You come out of it in an odd state, somewhere between moved and unsettled. The music does a good deal of that.
Give yourself to it, but watch your footing: the walls, floor and ceiling are all moving.
Address: 100 Columbus Blvd, Hartford, CT 06103, United States
Bushnell Park Carousel
The 1914 carousel is still turning at Hartford’s oldest public park, which is not a sentence many cities can write.
The hand-carved carousel is a historic site in its own right, restored and standing in the middle of Bushnell Park. The park runs to 50 acres of green space, and the carousel carries what are said to be the biggest horses on any carousel.
Over a million visitors a year find this Hartford attraction, and most of them did not know it was there. There are 48 horses on it, 36 jumpers and 12 standers, and a 1921 Wurlitzer band organ playing while they go round.
The carousel came from Ohio originally and was restored in New England to the original Stein and Goldstein design. It is a genuinely unusual thing to have survived this long in working order.
Hartford now holds one of only three Stein and Goldstein carousels left anywhere.
It sits in a decorative pavilion on the edge of Bushnell Park. The lights, mirrors and stained glass make it hard to walk past.
Riding it is a small piece of American history and it costs almost nothing. An afternoon there with children or friends, with the carnival tune going, is a better hour than it sounds.
Address: 1 Jewell St, Hartford, CT 06103, United States
Charter Oak Landing
Hartford’s riverfront park sits just south of downtown, and it is where you stop to breathe.
Charter Oak Landing covers family recreation and time outdoors between them. There is a pedestrian walkway along the river and a small playground.
The water side runs to a boat launch and fishing access, which makes it a Hartford spot most visitors never find.
Stop here and picnic beside the Connecticut river with whoever you brought. There are charcoal grills and port-o-lets, which sounds unromantic and matters on a long afternoon.
Charter Oak covers more than the paved trails and pathways. Bring your own boat and you can work the banks for fishing. Getting here is straightforward from downtown Hartford.
There is also a pair of nesting eagles at Charter Oak, along with native birds that will come to the benches and trails.
The Charter Oak Bridge is reachable from here on the pedestrian walkway. The planting is dense enough that much of the park sits in tree shade.
Watch the Connecticut riverbank do its work while the city carries on behind you. Come to Charter Oak Landing around the 4th of July and you get the fireworks from here.
Address: 50 Reserve Rd, Hartford, CT 06114, United States
City Steam Brewery
Local beer on draft and Connecticut’s own distilling, while you are passing through Hartford.
The smell from the City Steam Brewery reaches you before the building does, and the building is H.H. Richardson’s. The brewpub sits in the heart of downtown Hartford and covers handcrafted beers and an upscale casual menu between them.
City Steam was a department store before it was a brewery, which explains the 9-level seating and the private function halls.
The beer and the food are the start of it. This place in Hartford runs a good deal else.
The Brew HaHa Comedy Club runs live comedy every weekend, with local performers taking the stage. There are flat-screen TVs for a game and pool tables in the bar.
Talk to the locals and you will leave with a better list of things to do in Hartford, Connecticut than any article gives you. The staff will also help you put together a banquet or an event if that is why you came.
Travelers passing through use City Steam Brewery as the place to catch up on what the city is doing. The room is casual and the beer list keeps changing, which is why people come back.
.Address: 942 Main St, Hartford, CT 06103, United States
Connecticut Science Center
The Connecticut Science Center runs over 165 hands-on exhibits, which is a full day rather than an afternoon.
The facility in Hartford, Connecticut does not sort visitors by age or ability; the whole family goes through the same doors. It occupies 154,000 square feet and includes a 3D digital theater.
Ten galleries hold the travelling and permanent exhibits, Science Alley, KidSpace and the Engineering Lab among them.
The rooms are built to move you between subjects without you noticing you have changed direction.
You can go into space, build something, solve a crime and trace ancestry through DNA. That is a fraction of what is on the floor at the Connecticut Science Center.
The newest technology is here and so are real scientists, who will talk to you if you ask.
This is where you take children for the sort of learning they do not notice happening. There are theater presentations and films running every hour, and the World Exhibition section if you would rather keep walking.
The Connecticut Science Center changes how you look at ordinary things. The only real problem is deciding where to start.
Address: 250 Columbus Blvd, Hartford, CT 06103, United States
Connecticut’s Old State House
Connecticut’s Old State House is the oldest state house in the state and the oldest anywhere in the country. It has been called the place where history and civics meet.
It stands in downtown Hartford and the city still gathers there, including for the Old State House’s Conversations at Noon series.
It is the building where the Amistad trial was held, which is what gave it national significance.
For over 80 years it served as a capitol building where national questions were argued out. It now works as Hartford’s most historically significant museum.
Take a tour, or turn up for whatever the town has on at Connecticut’s Old State House.
The grounds and chambers host Hartford’s Farmer’s Market, concerts, exhibitions and art displays. The old state house also runs educational programmes and takes school groups and field trips from across Connecticut.
The Greater Hartford Information Center is in the same building, which makes this the sensible first stop of any visit.
Come any time of year to understand how this state argued its way toward freedom and democracy. The building itself is a large part of what gives central Hartford its character.
Thousands of visitors from across the country and beyond come to this National Landmark every year.
Address: 800 Main St, Hartford, CT 06103, United States
Elizabeth Park Conservancy
Walking over 100 acres of flower gardens is not an experience most cities can offer.
Elizabeth Park Conservancy is what Hartford, Connecticut and the towns around it have instead of an ordinary park.
It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the city park in West Hartford looks the part. The formal rose garden dates to 1904, with walking loops and family facilities laid out around it.
Spring and summer are when the gardens are at their best, with the tulips and heritage roses fully out. That is also when the park runs community events, including the Greenhouse Show of tulips and daffodils.
Elizabeth Park has been growing things for the Hartford community since 1897. There is more here than gardens, with picnic areas and walking trails across the park system.
You can bike the wildflower trail or walk out to the pond. Elizabeth Park Conservancy holds about 800 old varieties of roses, including the first municipal rose garden in the United States.
Of everything growing here, the dahlia display tulips are the ones people come back for.
Gardens, greenhouses, mature trees and long views, stretching further than one visit covers.
Finish at the Pond House Cafe, which is where the park’s eating happens.
Address: 1561 Asylum Ave, West Hartford, CT 06117, United States
Downtown holds most of it and the walking is easy. The Wadsworth Atheneum, the Old State House and the Connecticut Science Center sit close enough together to move between on foot. Bushnell Park carries the 1914 carousel a short walk from all three. West of the center, the Mark Twain House and the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center stand almost next door to one another. Elizabeth Park and the riverfront are the outdoor half of the day.
Harriet Beecher Stowe Center
The Stowe House is where you learn who Harriet Beecher Stowe actually was.
Stowe was a best-selling author whose work argued against slavery, and Hartford still takes that seriously. Her novels addressed the social questions of the 19th century, and the case they made for what writing can do has not aged.
Her life and her work are held here alongside the centre’s historical collections.
The tour of the Stowe House is conversational and interactive rather than a walk past rope barriers, and the Victorian Gothic cottage it moves through has been carefully kept.
The museum connects the arguments of that time to the ones being had now, including women’s equal standing with men.
The interior is not what a period house usually looks like. There are modern gallery spaces alongside rooms furnished to Stowe’s own taste in decorative arts and oil paintings.
There is an exhibit dedicated to “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, the novel and the argument around it, and the tour invites you to say what you think of it.
The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center also runs Nook Farm, a walking tour of the neighborhood.
The tour runs about an hour of walking and standing, so wear something you can do that in.
It is a more demanding visit than most house museums and a considerably more interesting one.
Address: 77 Forest St, Hartford, CT 06105, United States
Hartford Stage
Hartford’s regional theater is the reason to stay an extra night.
The 489-seat stage takes classic plays, new work, musicals and everything between.
It is named among the leading resident theaters in Connecticut and in the country. The award-winning theater sits in downtown Hartford and its reputation reaches well beyond the state.
Hartford Stage programmes at a standard that holds up against anywhere, from world drama to the classics and musicals.
The awards include the Regional Theatre Tony Award and New York Critics Circle Awards. Within the state, Hartford Stage has taken a long run of Connecticut Critics Circle awards.
The American premieres and the world-renowned productions are what people book Hartford Stage for. The theater also runs art programmes to keep the work at a consistent artistic and cultural standard rather than chasing box office.
A season ticket for Hartford Stage is the upgrade worth making to a trip here.
Address: 50 Church St, Hartford, CT 06103, United States
Mortensen Riverfront Plaza
Get the best views of Hartford from the city’s landscaped park along the Connecticut River.
The plaza sits in downtown Hartford, Connecticut and is the focal point of the Riverfront Recapture park system. There is a stage at the river’s edge for events and 2500 seats on a grassy patio.
It faces the Founders Bridge, which connects Hartford to East Hartford and Great River Park. It is one of several public spaces in the park system, linked by riverwalks and carrying recreational facilities.
Mortensen Riverfront Plaza is straightforward to reach. There is more here than the first look suggests.
The plaza covers boating and fishing alongside the walking, on paved and raised walkways.
The Lincoln Sculpture Walk runs through it, with 16 sculpture installations about Lincoln placed across the area.
Mortensen Riverfront has become where the city gathers for live music and festivals. The Food Truck Festival and the Caribbean and Jerk Festival are the two annual events worth timing a visit around.
Come to the plaza on the Fourth of July for the fireworks and everything the city puts on around them.
Address: 300 Columbus Blvd, Hartford, CT 06103, United States
Real Art Ways
Real Art Ways is the nonprofit that keeps contemporary art alive in Hartford, and the work in it is by people from here.
The space in Hartford, Connecticut runs visual art exhibits and public art projects, including installations. It also houses an independent cinema, a theater, live music, community events and performances.
Real Art Ways built its reputation on early alternative art, from established artists and new ones alike. What it actually does is connect people and ideas, which is harder than hanging pictures.
The programme runs daily cinema screenings and galleries at Hartford’s arthouse. The Creative Cocktail Hour on the third Thursday of every month is the one to turn up to. It is where the interesting people are.
The independent films are the draw and the theater programme holds up beside them. It works for a date or for going alone.
The galleries run eclectic, and local work like Joe Bun Keo’s display is the kind of thing you will not see elsewhere.
Stop at the Loading Dock Lounge while you are there for a coffee, a drink or a glass of wine.
Real Art Ways is where you meet people and support the artists who live in Hartford. “Real Art. All Ways.”
Address: 56 Arbor St, Hartford, CT 06106, United States
The Bushnell Performing Arts Center
Hartford’s performing arts venue takes Broadway shows and serious concerts from across Connecticut and beyond, and the building itself is worth a tour.
The 21st Century performing arts center sits in Downtown Hartford. There is a good deal to see in The Bushnell beyond whatever is on that night, including a tour of the historic venue.
The Bushnell’s “Behind the Scene” tours take you through the halls and the Belding Theater, which is genuinely luxurious. You get the backstage spaces where the work actually happens.
Time it right and you may run into a performer back there.
Everything at this Hartford arts center is accessible to all its patrons, on stage and behind it. The community programme is worth checking alongside the main billing.
The tour covers The Bushnell’s history from its founding to now, and there is more of it than fits in your head. Take a pen.
With more than 350 events a year, something is always on at The Bushnell Performing Arts Center. The expansion project has given it a larger stage and better seating.
A show at The Bushnell is the kind of evening that changes what you thought the city was.
Address: 166 Capitol Ave, Hartford, CT 06106, United States
The Mark Twain House & Museum
Samuel Clemens, one of America’s greatest authors, actually lived here in Hartford, Connecticut, and you can walk through the house.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, writing as “Mark Twain”, lived in this Hartford house with his family for 17 years. He wrote several of his best-known novels here, including “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”, “The Prince and the Pauper” and “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”.
The guided tour covers his working life and his domestic one, which turn out to be the same story. The 25-room Victorian home is a strong example of the gothic architecture of the period.
The entrance opens into a grand hall that is dramatic and plain at once, which is what Twain and his wife wanted.
The Billiard Room is the one to stand in; that is where Twain did most of his writing. The grand library, the ticket desk at The Webster Bank Museum Center and the Aetna Gallery are the other stops.
The house is the reason to come and the grounds, gardens and greenhouse on the lawn are the reason to stay longer.
Address: 351 Farmington Ave, Hartford, CT 06105, United States
Trumbull Kitchen
Trumbull Kitchen is where Hartford, Connecticut eats when it wants the meal to be the evening.
The restaurant runs a globally eclectic menu for downtown Hartford, residents and visitors alike. The design is contemporary, the room is casual and the bar is busy, which makes it a proper night out.
The Trumbull Kitchen serves cross-cultural dishes on large plates so a table can work through several. Wherever you came from, part of the menu will be familiar and part of it will not.
Lit ceilings, leather walls, glass and colored floor tiles: the Trumbull looks like somewhere worth booking.
The kitchen does not stop. The range runs from the appetizers through to a dinner worth the drive, and the desserts are built for sharing.
The favorites are the Happy Hour tapas, the Chinese chicken salad and the Trumbull version of mac & cheese. The meatloaf, the Hanger steak and the short ribs are worth the wait.
The seasonal cocktails and the wine list at Trumbull Kitchen are not an afterthought. There is a vegetarian and gluten-free lunch menu as well.
Trumbull Kitchen gets the food, the service and the room right at the same time, which is rarer than it should be. Max runs it, and the standard shows.
Address: 150 Trumbull St, Hartford, CT 06103, United States
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art
Note this art museum as a place to visit in Hartford, Connecticut. It offers collections of European, French, Classical Egyptian and American Impressionist work.
The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art holds close to 50,000 works. It is the oldest public art museum in Hartford and the oldest anywhere in the country. The galleries run from Greek and Roman antiquities and European Baroque through to Surrealist painting.
The portraits include John Singer Sargent’s “Ruth Sears Bacon” and the “Cecilia Beaux” portrait by George Dudley Seymour.
There is more than that, whatever you came for. Beyond being the oldest, the Wadsworth Atheneum was the first public museum in the country to hang Hudson River School paintings.
The Pilgrim-style furnishings and the American art hold attention once you are inside. The gallery also runs art activities for children on a schedule, alongside its programmes.
The museum has something worth stopping for in every room. It is also unusually calm, which makes a long visit restorative rather than exhausting.
There is a snack bar and a wide patio on the grounds. A chicken salad sandwich and a coffee will reset most afternoons.
The Wadsworth Atheneum programmes for range as well as depth, including the “Glass Exhibit”.
Book ahead if there is a particular collection or work you came for. The special exhibits are hung with real care over placement, lighting and the order you meet things in.
Give it a long afternoon. A museum this good does not reward a quick pass.
Address: 600 Main St, Hartford, CT 06103, United States
Frequently asked questions about Hartford, Connecticut
How old is the carousel in Bushnell Park, Hartford?
It dates to 1914 and it still runs. There are 48 horses on it, 36 jumpers and 12 standers, and a 1921 Wurlitzer band organ playing alongside. It is one of only three surviving Stein and Goldstein carousels.
What can you see at the Mark Twain House in Hartford?
The 25-room Victorian home where Samuel Clemens lived for 17 years and wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The guided tour covers the grand hall, the library and the Billiard Room, where most of the writing happened.
How many works are in the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art?
Close to 50,000, which makes it a serious collection by any measure, and it is the oldest public art museum in the country. The galleries run from Greek and Roman antiquities through European Baroque to Surrealism. Allow a long afternoon.
