First Thursday Walking Tour: Discovering Hartford’s Main Street

What: Learn how Hartford has evolved over the last three centuries by viewing some of Main Street’s most well known and important buildings, including City Hall, the Wadsworth Atheneum, the Travelers Tower, the Old State House, Center Church, and the Ancient Burying Ground. Conducted by the Antiquarian & Landmarks Society (www.hartnet.org/als).



When: Thursday, May 6, 5:30-7:00 p.m.



Where: Tour begins at the Butler-McCook House & Garden, 396 Main Street



Registration: Call (860) 522-1806 to make reservations. Cost: $6 for A&L members, $8 for non-members



Since English settlers first laid out Hartford in the seventeenth century, Main Street has been lined with homes, churches, businesses and public institutions. Hartford, established along the Connecticut River, was divided by the Little (Park) River, which extended westward from the Connecticut. The Little River bisected Main Street, which runs north to south, just north of the Butler-McCook House. For much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the southern part of Main Street was primarily residential in nature, with single-family homes lining the street. The northern half of Main Street was more thickly settled, however.



Many of Hartford’s retail businesses and public institutions were found alongside residences on Main Street north of the Little River. Developing from a market town to a leading manufacturing center, Hartford underwent significant changes in the second half of the nineteenth century. The Butler-McCook House is the only eighteenth-century residence remaining on Main Street. Discovering Hartford’s Main Street highlights the eighteenth-, nineteenth-, and twentieth century-buildings the Butlers and the McCooks frequented and watched be constructed over their lifetimes.

Rites of Spring: The Bushnell Park Carousel Reopens

The Bushnell Park Carousel, one of less than 200 antique wooden carousels operating in the U.S. and now 90 years old, opens its doors for the season on Saturday, May 1. The hours: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The cost: 50 cents a ride. The carousel will be open until mid-October. For more information, contact the New England Carousel Museum by calling 585-5411 or visiting www.thecarouselmuseum.com

1st Co. Governor’s Foot Guard Band Marks 100th Anniversary

What: The First Company Governor’s Foot Guard Band presents a jubilee concert in celebration of its 100th anniversary. Program includes rousing marches, symphonic selections, and patriotic melodies.



When: Sunday, May 2, 2 p.m.



Where: The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts, 166 Capitol Ave, Hartford.



Tickets cost $11.50-$16.50. For more information, call The Bushnell at 987-5900 or visit its site at www.bushnell.org

'Two cheers for city sidewalks'

In a Hartford Courant commentary article published on April 11, Toni Gold applauds the city's decision to scrap the network of skywalks it had begun building downtown. Among other things, the move allows the reopening of Temple Street.

Sheff v. O’Neill: A Look Forward

What: A panel discussion looking back on the issues surrounding the 1989 suit alleging deprivation of equal opportunity education in Hartford schools, hosted by WNPR-CT Public Radio and the Connecticut Historical Society Museum, in cooperation with the Hartford Studies Project at Trinity College. The panel will include lawyer John Brittain, state Commissioner of Education Betty J. Sternberg, and Director of Magnet School Programs Edward Linehan. Discover and discuss what strides have been made since the January 2003 agreement to strengthen Hartford schools and expand inter-district magnet schools.



When: Thursday, April 8 at 7 p.m.



Where: CHS headquarters, 1 Elizabeth Street, Hartford (at the corner of Asylum Avenue.)



Admission: free for members of Connecticut Public Broadcasting and the CHS Museum, $3-6 for everyone else. Reservations: (860) 236-5621, x238.



For more information: http://www.chs.org