Hartford

Sports and the Outdoors

Bushnell Park. Fanning out from the State Capitol building, this city park, created in 1850, was the first public space in the country with natural landscaping. The original designer, a Swiss-born landscape architect and botanist named Jacob Weidenmann, planted 157 varieties of trees and shrubs to create an urban arboretum. Added later were the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch, dedicated to Civil War soldiers; the Corning Fountain; the Bushnell Park Carousel (open May through September), intricately hand-carved in 1914 by the Artistic Carousel Company of Brooklyn, New York; the Pumphouse Gallery; and a performance venue. An oasis of green, the park has a pond and about 750 trees, including four state-champion trees. Asylum and Trinity Sts., Hartford, CT, 06103. 860/232-6710. www.bushnellpark.org.