Lydia Huntley Sigourney (1791-1865) Lydia Sigourney is the namesake of Sigourney Square Park, as well as of Sigourney Street. During her lifetime, she was one of the most famous people in the United States. She was referred to as the “Sweet Singer of Hartford,” and she is renowned as both the first professional woman poet in the United States and as the nation’s first bestselling woman poet. Born in Norwich, Lydia Huntley moved to Hartford in 1815, opening a school for young women in the home of Daniel Wadsworth. It was as a teacher that she met Alice Cogswell, the deaf daughter of Mason Cogswell, and Lydia recognized Alice as a brilliant student who would benefit from a full education. Lydia’s encouragement led Mason to send Thomas Gallaudet to France to study education for the deaf, which led to the establishment of the American School for the Deaf. Today, Lydia is considered a foundational figure in the history of education for the deaf in the US. Lydia lived in Asylum Hill from 1819 until 1836, after marrying Charles Sigourney. They lived on Hurlburt Street in a mansion that overlooked the Park River. The current location of their home is the parking lot behind Artspace, 555 Asylum Avenue. She is buried in Spring Grove Cemetery. The Town of Hartford created the Town Farm in 1822, and between then and 1859 it purchased 9 properties, or just over 56 acres, for the Town Farm and Almshouse. In 1885, the Town Farm property was subdivided into 192 parcels and Sigourney Square Park. Surveyor Hiram G. Loomis laid out new streets and extensions of existing streets across the Town Farm property, and some of these streets were graded by residents of the Almshouse. The park was originally envisioned as a square lawn, but influence from Melvin Hapgood, a local architect who had bought two Town Farm parcels, led to J. Alex McClunie designing a landscaped square with trees and shrubs. Work on the park began in April 1895, and the City of Hartford accepted the park on October 28, 1895. The “committee on the sale of the old town farm property,” also known as the Old Town Farm Committee, sold the parcels, and it submitted its final report on its work on November 23, 1897. The total proceeds from the sale of the parcels, less expenditures to improve the property, was $114,392.44, which would be equivalent to $4,440,377.39 in 2025. The Friends of Sigourney Square Park Formed in 2011, the Friends is a group of neighborhood residents and community stakeholders who partner with the Hartford Department of Public Works to maintain and improve the park. They meet monthly, and they are always happy to welcome new members. For more information on the park and the Friends, please contact the Asylum Hill Neighborhood Association. |
