Bushnell Park, Hartford

In 1853 Reverend Horace Bushnell, motivated to improve access to nature for the city’s poor working class, persuaded the Hartford City Council to acquire the land to create a park. In November of that year the Council voted unanimously to spend $105,000 to buy the land that would become Bushnell Park. When Hartford voters approved the spending, it was the first time in the United States that a municipal park was to be conceived, built, and paid for by citizens through a popular vote.

See Bushnell Park