The south central section of Main street on the Cast side is rapidly developing into one of the handsomest and most. artistic street ranges in the country. To the old ,nucleus of the /Etna Life Insurance Company's white granite structure (formerly the Charter Oak Life's, but now elevated by four more stories), and across an alley next south the Wadsworth Atheneum's dark-brown, castellated and towered building designed by Ithiel Town, have been added on the north of the former, first the nobly beauti ful white granite home of the /Etna (Fire) In surance Company; then the immense gray sky scraper of the Travelers Insurance Company, 21 stories high including a large tower, the largest business structure in the city; on the south of the Atheneum, the small but elegant memorial of Mrs. Samuel Colt, of Quincy granite and thus lighter colored than its neigh bor, joined to the latter without break and con tinued so by the white marble Morgan Memorial, extending through to Prospect street, erected by J. Pierpont Morgan (of Hartford birth) for a memorial to his father Junius Spencer Mor gan, the eminent banker. A 65-foot way was reserved south of the Morgan Memorial grounds, and next have since come the new municipal buildings, handsome classic structures of white granite. Going north, the city hall (old State House), completed May 1796, is of double interest, architecturally and historically; it was designed by Charles Bulfinch, the archi tect of the United States Capitol, and the famous Hartford Convention of 1814 (q.v.) was held here. The post-office in its rear, of white granite, is a Mullins creation of the Grant era. Opposite this on State street is the tall handsome building of the First National Bank. The red sandstone Cheney Building well north on Main Street, put up as a monu ment by the great silk firm, was designed by Henry H. Richardson (q.v.), the most original and influential of American architects. On the corner of Main and Pearl is the deep office building of the Connecticut Mutual Life Insur ance Company, and down Pearl a short distance are the Phcaux Mutual Life and the National Fire on the south, and the Security Company and the Connecticut General on the north, with the Hartford Firejust beyond at Pearl and Trumbull. The Hartford Life is at Asylum and Ann. The Rossia has a very handsome new structure at Farmington and Broad, next to the high school and theological seminary. Of the in dividual bank buildings, the most impressive are the Hartford-lEtna's 11-story, on the north corner of Main and Asylum; the First National as above; the Phoenix. Main just south of Asylutn; and the Society for Savings on Pratt street. There are many other attractive busi ness and public structures. The three leading hotels are the Allyn (Asylum and Trumbull), the Heublein (facing Bushnell Park at Mub and Wells) and the Bond (Asylum near Hi ). Of several handsome church buildings, Saint Joseph's Cathedral (Roman Catholic), on Farmington avenue near Sigourney street is most striking; it is 26x178 feet and 93 feet high, with two heavy towers intended to be crowned with spires.. Of the others, Christ Church (Protestant Episcopal) at Church and Main, with its superbly equipped new parish house; Saint Patrick's (Roman Catholic) at Church and Ann, the church of the Good Shepherd or Colt Memorial (Protestant Episcopal) 00 Wyllys, Trinity (Protestant Episcopal) 00 Sigourney, Immanuel (Congregational, formerly the Pearl Street) at Farmington and Gillette, and the Church of the Redeemer (Universal ist) on Asylum avenue east of the School for the Deaf, call for special notice architecturally. The Center Church (Congregational), .Main south of Pearl, is of the highest interest luston cally, as housing the oldest church society in the city, reaching back to its beginning.
Of the city monuments, the three most prominent for artistic effect are the Soldiers' Memorial Arch, forming a gateway into Bush nell Park across the Park River south of Pearl and Ford; the endlessly satisfying Corning fountain in that park, a gift from John J. Corning of New York— a bronze with sym bolical Indian figures, the work of J. M. Rlund; and the modified exedra in Colt Park, crowned by the statue of Colonel Colt. It has also statues of Israel Putnam, by J. Q. A. an eight-foot bronze with granite given by J. P. Allyn in. 1874; and Horace
Wells of Hartford (the discoverer of an aesthesia) by Truman H. Bartlett, erected by State and city in 1875. The city has also two statues of Nathan Hale: one in the Capitol, by Karl Gerhardt, the other in front of the Wads worth Atheneum, by E. S. Woods. One of the bridges across the river into Bushnell Park, that from Mulberry street, is the gift of George E. Hoadley, Esq., in memory of his grand father, Jeremiah Hoadley; it is of red granite and excellent workmanship. On North Main street is a clock tower with chimes, erected from the bequest of Henry Keney, the giver of the great park.
The educational institutions are of high grade and distinction. At their head stands Trinity College (q.v.) ; Episcopal in origin and headship, but wholly non-sectarian in teaching and with a singularly able corps of instructors. The Hartford High School, on Hopkins and Asylum just west of the railroad station, with some 2,500 pupils, stands in the foremost rank and is the most completely equipped in the country. Its main building is 426 feet long with an average of 50 feet wide, and cost in buildings, land and equipment $598,500; but in 1911-15 land was bought through to Broad street and buildings erected for a supplementary technical high sdiool, which cost $689,529.88, has a gymnasium and assembly hall and seats 1,500 pupils. Pupils from surrounding towns are admitted on payment. The city schools are on the district system, despite many attempts at the polls to consolidate them; but the taxes for their support are equalized by reapportion ment. There are nine districts, with 20 build ings altogether. The school outlays are about $750,000 a year. There are also three com mercial colleges or schools, and a commercial high school at Saint Joseph's Convent; four parochial Roman Catholic schools, with some 2,500 pupils, besides a convent school for Polish children. Hartford has also a theological semi-' nary, the Hartford Theological Seminary on Broad street, managed by the Pastoral Union (Congregational) of Connecticut, with an affil iated School of Religious Pedagogy, once fa mous at East Windsor; a Roman Catholic semi nary for training priests, Saint Thomas' on Collins near Woodland; and a missionary col lege and seminary of the Fathers of La Salette.
Religiously, Hartford is the seat of a Ro man Catholic and a Protestant Episcopal bishop. There are about 70 church societies, of which the Congregational (11), for a century the only one, Roman Catholic (10), Baptist (9), Episco pal (10), Methodist (7), and Hebrew (7 syna gogues), are the chief denominations. The Connecticut Missionary Society has its head office here. There are 10 convents: four of the Sisters of Mercy (mother house in the State, established 1853), two of the Sisters of Saint Joseph, two of the Sisters of the Holy Ghost, one of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd and one of the Felician Sisters of Saint Francis (Polish).
Its charitable and related institutions are re nowned. It was the earliest seat of attempts to instruct the United States deaf and dumb, through Thomas Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc; and the School for the Deaf, for merly Deaf and Dumb Asylum, carries on the work in buildings on Asylum and Garden. The Retreat for the Insane (now re named Hartford Retreat), on Washington street, has endowments which reduce its charges to patients. The Hartford Hospital on South Hudson, Saint Francis' Hospital at Collins and Woodland (R.C., but open to out side paying patients), the Hartford Orphan Asylum, the Watkinson Farm School, the Young Men's Christian Association, the City Mission and Open Hearth, the Hartford Social Settlement, the Old People's Home, Mrs. Colt's munificently endowed home for old ladies, and various other refuges for the aged and indigent, are only part of its overflowing charities. One of the most useful is the Woman's Christian Association establishment on Church street, affectionately known among its friends as ((the Home," for girls' lodging and board, with two buildings, one lately finished; it is managed so as to earn its expenses but make no profit, and place is given to working girls at the lowest rate consistent with this. Saint Elizabettf.c Home, R. C., Main opposite Park, does the same service for its class. The Connecticut Humane Society has also its head office in Hartford.