Your Privacy Choices
The Associated Press is reporting that the original Colt factory in Hartford, Connecticut is to become a national park. Hailed as the result of a “decade-long push,” the factory, active until 1994, included “armories, buildings for worker housing, and an Episcopal church Elizabeth Colt commissioned in her husband’s honor following his death. The Church of the Good Shepherd features revolver parts carved into sandstone above one of the entrances and, at the rear, stained glass with a rendering of Samuel Colt in flowing robes.”
In this Dec. 17, 2014 photo, a stained glass window depicting Samuel Colt is seen inside the Church of the Good Shepherd, which was built by the widow of Samuel Colt, in Hartford, Conn. As the decade-long push to make a national park out of Colt’s now-closed gun factory and other buildings in Coltsville won approval in Washington, elected officials hailed the project as a way to boost one of Hartford’s poorest neighborhoods and honor the revolver as a marvel of manufacturing. Notably absent was Colt’s Manufacturing Co. _ the company that, somewhat uncomfortably, remains based today in a state still reeling from the Newtown shootings and now sporting some of the nation’s strictest gun laws. (AP Photo/Michael Melia)
Caption from AP.
Key take-aways:
The factory, distinguished by its blue onion-shaped dome, opened in 1855 and is perhaps the best-known symbol of an era when gun companies in the Connecticut River valley helped to pioneer the concept of interchangeable parts and drive the Industrial Revolution.
The measure designating Coltsville as a national park was signed into law Friday (December 19, 2014) by President Barack Obama. It is expected to bring in millions of dollars and, eventually, 200,000 visitors annually. A proposal describes possible attractions including a “Colt manufacturing multimedia experience.”
You can read the full article here.
Note*- Article head image credit to AP/Bob Child.
In this Dec. 17, 2014 photo, a blue onion-shaped dome sits atop Samuel Colt’s 19th century gun factory in Hartford, Conn., and is perhaps the best known symbol of a bygone era. As the decade-long push to make a national park out of the now-closed gun factory won approval in Washington, elected officials hailed the project as a way to boost one of Hartford’s poorest neighborhoods and honor the revolver as a marvel of manufacturing. Notably absent was Colt’s Manufacturing Co. _ the company that, somewhat uncomfortably, remains based today in a state still reeling from the Newtown shootings and now sporting some of the nation’s strictest gun laws. (AP Photo/Michael Melia)
Caption from AP
