Session Details

T10. Elizabeth Jarvis Colt, Businesswoman and Philanthropist
(Event: 2019 NCPH Annual Meeting)

Mar 30, 2019 10:30 am - Mar 30, 2019 12:30 pm
Session Type: Tour

Description

After Samuel Colt died in 1862, his 36-year-old widow Elizabeth maintained tight control over his Patent Arms Manufacturing Company for the next 40 years, rebuilding the factory after Confederate sympathizers burned it to the ground in 1864. She became one of the richest women in America and one of Hartford’s most influential civic leaders.

This two-hour guided tour takes you to two of Elizabeth Colt’s largest and most visible legacies, the high Victorian Gothic Revival Church of the Good Shepherd, completed in 1869 as a memorial to her late husband, and the Parish House in the same style completed in 1895. Both are located near downtown, in the worker’s village of Coltsville. Elizabeth Colt intended the Church to be a place where owners, managers, and laborers could worship side-by-side, and today the parish membership forms a racially, culturally, and economically diverse community drawn from throughout the greater Hartford region. 

In addition to discussing Elizabeth Colt's "repair work" in 19th century Hartford, public historian William Hosley, author of Colt: The Making of an American Legend (UMass Press 2006), and Senior Warden Jack Hale of the Church of the Good Shepherd, will discuss the challenges of keeping two magnificent historic structures, built by someone for whom money was no object, in good repair today.  


  
Session Fees
Fee TypeMember FeeNon-Member Fee
This session is free
Early: $15.00 $15.00
Regular: $15.00 $15.00
Late: $15.00 $15.00

 
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