Hartford, the capital of Connecticut

Hartford’s head start

Hartford is one of the oldest seats of government in the United States. English settlers founded it on the Connecticut River in 1636, and it became the center of the Connecticut Colony. The Fundamental Orders of 1638 and 1639, the plan of government that gives Connecticut its nickname, were adopted by the river towns of Hartford, Windsor and Wethersfield. When King Charles II granted Connecticut a royal charter in 1662, it united the Connecticut Colony with the separate New Haven Colony, and Hartford remained the capital.

Two capitals

In 1701 the colony began sharing the capital between its two leading towns. The General Assembly met in Hartford for its May session and in New Haven for its October session. The arrangement survived independence and lasted for most of the next two centuries. Both cities built statehouses. Hartford’s, the Old State House designed by Charles Bulfinch and opened in 1796, still stands; the state calls it the oldest state house in the nation, although Boston’s Old State House is older.

By the 1860s the costs of two capitals were hard to ignore. The state had to maintain two buildings and keep duplicate records, and the legislature had to move twice a year. After years of debate, the General Assembly voted in 1873 to have a single capital. Hartford won the contest by offering the site of the former Trinity College campus, overlooking Bushnell Park, plus $500,000 toward a new capitol. Voters ratified the change as a constitutional amendment, which took effect in 1875. The last session in New Haven’s statehouse was held in 1874, and the building was torn down in 1889 before a crowd of about 3,000 people.

The Capitol

The Connecticut State Capitol was designed by Richard M. Upjohn and built by James G. Batterson. Work began in 1871, and the General Assembly first met in the building in January 1879. It cost about $2.53 million, well over the original budget.

The building is Gothic in style, built of New England marble and granite, and topped by a gold-leaf dome that rises over Bushnell Park. It became a National Historic Landmark in 1970.

The Old State House

Bulfinch’s Old State House, a few blocks away, served as Connecticut’s statehouse until 1878. It was the scene of many historic events. In 1839 the trials of Cinque and the other African captives who had seized the ship Amistad opened there. Today it is a museum.

Hartford today

Hartford had about 122,000 residents in 2025, the fourth largest city in Connecticut, behind Bridgeport, Stamford and New Haven. Long known as the “insurance capital of the world,” it remains the headquarters of several large insurance companies.

Visiting

Free guided tours of the Capitol are offered on weekdays by the League of Women Voters of Connecticut Education Fund. See the Connecticut General Assembly’s tour page for times.