Armsmear

Infobox_nrhp | name = Samuel Colt Home
nrhp_type = nhl


caption = Armsmear
location = 80 Wethersfield Avenue, Hartford, Connecticut
lat_degrees = 41
lat_minutes = 45
lat_seconds = 13.89
lat_direction = N
long_degrees = 72
long_minutes = 40
long_seconds = 29.03
long_direction = W
locmapin = Connecticut
area =
built = 1855
architect = Unknown
architecture = Italianate
designated = November 13, 1966cite web|url=http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=611&ResourceType=Building
title = Samuel Colt Home |accessdate=2007-09-30|work=National Historic Landmark summary listing|publisher=National Park Service]
added = November 13, 1966cite web|url=http://www.nr.nps.gov/|title=National Register Information System|date=2007-01-23|work=National Register of Historic Places|publisher=National Park Service]
governing_body = Private
refnum = 66000802

Armsmear ("meadow of arms"), also known as the Samuel Colt Home, is a historic house located at Hartford, Connecticut. It was the family home of firearm manufacturer Samuel Colt and is now a National Historic Landmark.

Armsmear was planned for Colt's 1856 marriage to Elizabeth Hart Jarvis, and constructed in 1856 to designs by an unknown architect, possibly local architect Octavius Jordan or factory engineer H. A. G. Pomery, on grounds overlooking the recently completed Colt Armory. It was described by a contemporary thus: "an Italian villa in stone, massive, noble, refined, yet not carrying out any decided principle of architecture, it is like its originator, bold and unusual in its combinations." It features a low-pitched roof, heavy bracketed cornice, round-arched doors and windows, iron balconies, Italianate tower and details, and Turkish domes and pinnacles.

The Colts occupied Armsmear in 1857 and promptly began to develop its gardens. Landscape architects Cleveland and Copeland provided the plans. Unusual, glass-domed conservatories, inspired by London's Crystal Palace, were added in 1861-1862. Ultimately the estate contained some 2,600 linear feet of greenhouses, as well as ponds, fountains, and a deer park.

After Elizabeth Colt died in 1905, the house was converted to a home for Episcopalian women (in 1911) under the terms of her will. She also gave convert|140|acre|km2 of Armsmear's grounds to create Hartford's Colt Park. The city has subsequently replaced the greenhouse, garden, and ponds with ball fields and a skating rink.

References

ources

* [http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/hhh.ct0331 Historic American Buildings Survey]
* Phillip M. Johnston, "Dialogues between Designer and Client: Furnishings Proposed by Leon Marcotte to Samuel Colt in the 1850s", Winterthur Portfolio, Vol. 19, No. 4 (Winter, 1984), pp. 257-275.
* [http://www.hartfordbotanicalgarden.org/ColtGardensHistory.pdf Hartford Botanical Garden: Colt Gardens History]
* Barnard, Henry (ed), "Armsmear: The Home, The Arm, and the Armory of Samuel Colt", Alvord, New York 1866.