Hartford, Queen City of New England

- 1111111111111 I 111111111111111111111111 3 0231 00228 5554 ' z z 0 0 0 a: 0 Ll. 1 a: < :I ..J 0 !:: n. < 0 Ill 1 < 1 (/J Hartford Chamber of Commerce, Inc. 1915 ROSTER 1916 COMPILED BY THE 1915 MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE Roster Commiftee: Gustave Fischer Fronk G. Macomber Herbert S. King ARTFORD excels in its character. Whether one con siders its mighty ..insurance corporations, the variety and extent of its manufactures, or the advantages of the city as a place of residence; the one word which seems best to typify Hartford is "class." With the coming of that little band, led by one of the sturdiest of religious pioneers, there was brought to Hartford two hundred and eighty years ago, the spirit of progress which is manifest in every endeavor of its citizenship in 1915. Whether it be in manufacturing, in insurance, or in the varied commercial enterprises which have made this community so prosperous and which have more than kept pace with the advancement of our wonderful country, the Hartford spirit which strives to excel, is at all times dominant. Not long ago, a former successful manufacturer in Hartford, and who is repeating his Hartford success in a nearby municipality, gave voice to the statement that the name Hartford on any product meant at least a ten per cent. greater selling value. A community which in manufacturing has known a Samuel Colt and Albert A. Pope, whose intellectual and religious thought has been influenced by a Horace Bushnell and a John Williams; whose educational institutions have felt the inspiration of a Henry Barnard; and in whose literary life there have been a Harriet Beecher Stowe, a Mark Twain, and a Charles Dudley Warner; there is such a wide range of inventive and intellectual endeavor that the city's claim to distinction in both material and spiritual achievement t:annot be disputed. But Hartford's glory is by no means of the past. A city today with its investment of approximately five hundred millions in the insurance business, with its factories turning out annually sixty million dollars worth of pro ducts, fruits of the labor of between eighteen and twenty thousand skilled mechanics employed in more than two hundred factories, to whom is paid each year approximately twenty million dollars in wages, stands among the most prominent in the sisterhood of thriving municipalities. Perhaps no mu nicipality of corresponding size presents greater material wealth. Certainly none has finer public buildings and more beautifuJ parks. The parks include more than thirteen hundred acres of land and in one is situated the most beautiful rose garden in •America. A college, two seminaries, four libraries, one high and manual training school, and eighteen grammar schools comprise I its educational facilities. • e 1 HA RTFORD CHAMBER OF COMMERC~ INC With a population of practically one hundred thousand according to the last federal census, the present number of people is conservatively esti mated at one hundred and thirty-five thousand, an increase in fifteen years of at least fifty thousand. No single fact in the life of the city is more convincing of its stability than the amount which its insurance companies, numbering more than a score, have paid to beneficiaries. This sum, compiled from the 1914 reports to the insurance commissioner of Connecticut, reaches the gigantic figure of $1,446,729,889. No other city of the size of Hartford can even begin to ap proach this great outlay, and in capital, assets and surplus, the figures of the Hartford insurance companies are also strikingly impressive. The appended table tells the story. CAPITAL ................................ .$ 33,859,000.00 ASSETS ..................................$455,926,964.00 SURPLUS ............................... .$ 75,536,902.00 Hartford's bank clearings are also illustrative of the city's importance in the financial world. For the year 1914 the amount was $261,494,106.00. Our grand list amounts to the great sum of $111,412,555. Of this amount $54,253,135 is represented in dwelling houses of which there are 10,787. The assessments on 1,274 buildings used for stores is $32,071,060. There are 141 buildings used for mills which, with their ma'6,hinery, are valued at $11,179,315. Inside the city's limit are 5,078 acres of land free of buildings which are assessed for $3,052,838. Goods and merchandise in our stores are valued at $6,008,382. Materials of manufacturers are valued at $1,578,375. One million, four hundred and three thousand, eight hundred and fif teen dollars represent the value of automobile and motor vehicles in Hartford. Post Office Rece~pts With the foregoing very extensive evidence of the city's material wealth, it is not strange that the postal receipts reflect Hartford's prosperity. For the year ending March 31st last, the Hartford post office received $733, 065; while the expense in maintaining the office was only about 33 per cent. of this sum. Fre~ght To turn to another side of Hartford's business activity the freight ar rivals and departures by water alone, it may be said that according to the last annual report of the Port Warden, no less than 521,180 tons of miscellaneous freight were received and dispatched. In addition there were importations of 2,407,099 feet of lumber and 1,769,407 gallons of oil. Our factories alone for the twelve months received and consigned 120,000 tons of freight by rail. H A R T ¥ 0 R D C H A M B E R 0 F C 0 M M E R C E, I N C. Midway between New York and Boston, on the main line of New Eng land's great railroad system, and at the head of navigation of the Connecti cut river, Hartford enjoys transportation facilities of superior advantage. Not only are these transportation facilities advantageous for business, but within a radius of twenty-five miles, are many points of great scenic and historic in terest. The lines of the Hartford and New York Transportation Company afford daily passage between the city and New York with stops at interme diate river points. Not far down the river is located a little red school house where Nathan Hale, who is immortalized in American history, taught the youth of Revolutionary days. One of the best trolley systems in the United States traverses the city and with intersecting and connecting lines, gives access tQ the suburban ter ritory, rich in agriculture and manufacture. One of the most important in dustries of that section of the Connecticut valley, of which Hartford is a cen ter, is the growing of tobacco, a product which deyelops annually many mil lions of dollars to Connecticut prosperity. Publ~c StruClures At Hartford, state and city have contributed millions for public struc tures. Most notable is the state capitol, one of the handsomest specimens of architecture in New England and, with the State Library and Supreme Court building, enjoys the distinction of having been erected and furnished wholly inside the appropriation for these purposes. In addition the Connecticut State Arsenal and Armory, the home of the First Infantry, Connecticut Na tional Guard, in which is located the adjutant's general office, all the depart mental offices, and the State Arsenal, is one of the largest buildings of its kind in the United States. The dimensions are 325x275 feet, and the drill shed has a clear space. of 269x185 feet; while the: height from basement to ridge is 106 feet. There are 666 seats in the gallery and the drill room will accommodate 12,000 people. The total cost was $869,103.33. The cost of th~ library was $1,375,000 and of the State Capitol about three millions. Hartford's new municipal building, corner of Main and Arch streets, which will be dedicated in the fall, represents an outlay of more than a mil lion and is one of the most conveniently arranged and beautiful buildings in New England. Paintings and tapestries of priceless worth are included in the hand some collection pres~rved by the Wadsworth Athenaeum in the Morgan Memorial, a magnificent building of pink Knoxville marble erected by the late J. Pierpont Morgan of New York, in memory of his father, Junius Spencer Morgan, long a merchant of Hartford. Within the walls of the Colt Memorial may be found the choicest of the world's curios, including articles which were once the possession of royalty and which Col. Samuel Colt acquired in his European trips. The extensive collections of the Hartford Public Library and the Wat kinson Library are housed in the Wadsworth Athenaeum, a· granite building of Tudor architecture which was erected by the voluntary contributions of Hartford citizens at a cost of more than $200,000. H A R T F 0 R D C H A M B E R 0 P C 0 M M E R C E, I N C. The City Hall, which is one of the rare specimens of Bullfinch archi tecture extant and which was used as a State House from May, 1796, until March, 18 79, has been the scene of some of the most important gatherings in New England, including the famous Hartford Convention of 1814. It was here that Lafayette was entertained in 1825. One of the most striking structures in the city and forming a part of the beautiful bridge which spans the Park river, is the Memorial Arch, erected in honor of the men of Hartford who served in the Army and Navy of the North during the War of the Rebellion.

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