The Sheldon-Charter Oak Area

The Sheldon Charter Oak neighborhood, as Hartford’s oldest neighborhood, is home to over 20 of Hartford’s 29 historic landmarks. The Charter Oak neighborhood is named after an oak tree that was rumored to have hidden the town charter in one of it hallow sections in 1687. The tree came down in a windstorm in August of 1956.

The neighborhood was also the site of the original colonial settlement in 1623 as a Dutch trading post. It was here that, in 1636, Thomas Hooker and a group of colonists laid out house lots and fields. Some of the first Governors of Colonial Connecticut lived in or around the Charter Oak neighborhood. This neighborhood was also home to prominent Hartford citizens including Samuel Colt and his wife Elizabeth Hart Jarvis Colt who settled in Hartford in 1848. The Colt Dome, on top of the factory complex, has been a Hartford landmark since it was built in 1855. The complex included an armory, workers housing, a social hall, a church, a parish house, a park, and Colt's own mansion, Armsmear. The grounds of Colts estate were willed to the City of Hartford for use as a park, and Colt Park was opened to the public in 1905.

Other neighborhood historical milestones: