are the principal public buildings and churches.
State Street, also a broad avenue extending from
Main Street E. to Connecticut River, contains
many elegant buildings, and is the seat of an
active business. Near its junction with Main
Street, it divides into two branches, enclosing
the State House and the Public Square. Com-
merce Street runs along the bank of the river,
is connected by a branch track with the several
railroads entering the city, and has a large and
commodious freight depot upon the wharf, at the
terminus of the branch track, substantially built
of brown freestone and brick. Asylum Street,
extending W. from Main Street to the general
railroad depot, is compactly occupied by large
brick and freestone edifices, and is the seat of a
very extensive and heavy business, chiefly in.
cotton and woollen domestic fabrics. The city,
as a whole, is substantially and compactly built,
of brick and stone, and exhibits a larger number
of elegant edifices and more elaborate architect-
ure than most cities of its size.

Hartford Bridge, which connects the city with
East Hartford from the foot of Morgan Street,
is a substantial wooden structure, 1000 feet in
length.

Among the public buildings, the State House
is conspicuous. It stands in the centre of the
city, enclosed in a beautiful park surrounded
by an ornamental iron railing, and adorned with
fine shade trees. It is built of stone and brick;
order Roman Doric, length 114 feet, width 76
feet, height of walls 54 feet, with 'two porticoes
each 38 by 17 feet. On the basement a hall ex-
tends through the building from E. to W., having
on the N. side a court room, and on the S. the
public offices of the comptroller, treasurer, and
school commissioner, and the governor's room.
On the second floor, on the N. side of a cor-
responding hall, is the House of Representatives
chamber, on the S. the Senate chamber, and in
the western portico the office of the state secre-
tary. In the Senate chamber is one of the best
original paintings of Washington ever executed,
painted by Stewart. The State House was
erected in 1792. The cupola of this building
commands one of the richest and most exten-
sive landscape views in the country, embracing
the scenery of the Connecticut River with its
broad alluvial valley, crowned with luxuriant
vegetation for many miles in every direction, and
terminating only with the far distant blue high-
lands.

The City Hall, on Market Square, is an ele-
gant structure of Grecian architecture; the base-
ment occupied as a city market, the second floor
as the city and police court rooms and other
public offices, and the third floor as the public
city hall.

Wadsworth Athenaeum, standing on the W.
side of Main Street, is a noble building, of light-
gray granite, in the castellated Gothic style of
architecture, devoted to historical and literary
purposes. The north compartment is occupied
by the “Young Men's Institute," the basement
as lecture rooms, and the second floor for their
library, containing some 10,000 volumes; the
centre compartment contains a gallery of paint-
ings, and other rooms devoted also to the fine
arts and sculpture; the south compartment is
appropriated to the use of the Connecticut His-
torical Society, and contains in its archives a
large and highly interesting collection of histori-
cal antiquities, besides some 5000 volumes, and
multitudes of ancient documents, pamphlets, and
manuscripts. This building derives its name
from the late Daniel Wadsworth, Esq., who
gave the site upon which it stands.

Trinity College is situated on a gentle emi-
nence in the S. W. part of the city. See Colleges.

The American Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb
is in the immediate vicinity of the city, though
outside of the corporate limits, as is also the
Retreat for the Insane. The Asylum was the
first institution for the instruction of deaf mutes
ever established in this country. It was founded
in 1817, phiefly through the instrumentality of
the late Rev. Thomas II. Gallaudet, LL. D., its
first principal, who visited Europe for the pur-
pose of obtaining the requisite information. On
his return in 1816, he was accompanied by Mr.
Laurent Clerc, a deaf mute, who had been a suc-
cessful teacher for several years in Paris, under
the Abbe Sicard. He was at once secured as an
associate instructor with Mr. Gallaudet, and the
institution rose rapidly into public favor and
confidence — the number of 7 deaf mutes, with
which it commenced, soon increasing to 140,
from all sections of the Union. Congress, in
1819, granted to the Asylum a township of land
in Alabama, which has since been invested in a
permanent fund. The main building was erect-
ed in 1820. It is 130 by 50 feet, and 4 stories
high. Several other buildings, workshops, &c.,
have been since erected. The number of pupils
averages about 200. This institution is an orna-
ment to the city, the state, and the country, and
an enduring monument of the Christian philan-
thropy and wisdom of its now departed founder.

The Retreat for the Insane, but little less
interesting in the scale of human benevolence,
stands on a commanding but easy eminence
half a mile S. W. of the city. The site is admi-
rably chosen, overlooking one of the most serene
and lovely landscapes which can any where bo
found. In one direction, the eye embraces the
city, with its spires, turrets, and towers ; in others,
extensive views of the Connecticut Valley and
River, with its floating burden of steamers and
other vessels ; in others still, a number of thriv-
ing farming villages, embowered amid orchards
and deep foliage, from whence the numerous
white cottages and farm houses seem to peep
forth ; and in . the immediate foreground the
scenery is enriched by the ornamental and taste-
ful lawns and gardens of the institution, embra-
cing some 17 acres, beautifully adorned with
shrubbery and trees, and diversified with serpen-
tine walks and carriage ways. The main build-
ing is about 410 feet long, consisting of a centre
building 50 feet square, 3 stories above the base-
ment, flanked with wings extending N. and S.
2 and 3 stories high, 144 by 30,feet, and termi-
nating with two angular end buildings or halls,
one at each end, 120 by 36 feet. The males
occupy the north, and the females the south
wings and halls, exclusively, except such patients,
of both sexes, as have separate attendants, and
rooms in the centre building. The institution
accommodates 200 patients, and is considered a
model one of its highly-beneficent class. It was
founded in 1822.

The celebrated “ Charter Oak " is among the
objects of interest in Hartford. The original
charter which it concealed and saved is still in a
good state of preservation, in the office of the