Competition for designs for the Soldiers and Sailors’ Monument opens

01/25/1882 |

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The Courant published resolutions, passed by the Committee to Receive Designs on the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch, that requested designs for the arch.

More details

Designs for the memorial were to be submitted to George P. Bissell, the chair of the Committee to Receive Designs.
Bissell would provide potential competitors with “any information relative to the matter of said competition.”
The proposed site for the arch would be somewhere between Mulberry Street and Union Place and would cross the Park River.
Designs had to meet the following specifications:

A bridge that would be about 150 feet long between abutments and about 50 feet wide
A triumphal or memorial arch constructed on the bridge
A projected cost that would not exceed $60,000

Competitors were required to submit their design “in such a manner that the names of their respective authors shall be unknown until after a selection therefrom shall have been made.”
The deadline for submissions was May 1, 1882
Prizes would be awarded as follows:

$500 for the best design
$300 for the second best design
$200 for the third best design

The three winning designs would become “the property of the committee, with the right to make use of such designs, or parts thereof, as it shall see fit.”

And then there's this

The committee reserved the right to not adopt any design submitted, even if it received a prize.
In the event a design was accepted by the committee, the “author thereof shall be entitled to furnish the general drawings, the details and specifications, including superintendence, at such rate as shall be mutually agreed upon.”

The future foretold

The Courant will report that J. Cleveland Cady had selected the top three designs on May 15, 1882.

Caught my eye

“That proposals be requested, by advertising in one or more newspapers, for designs and preliminary drawings for a soldiers’ monument to be located in this town.”
The request for designs allowed any competitor to submit multiple designs, but “at least one of his designs” had to include the bridge and memorial arch that met the specifications called for by the request.

For the record

Mulberry Street, which no longer exists, was just south of Gold Street, running between Wells Street and Main Street. Its approximate location was directly across from the Wells Street entrance into Bushnell Park.
The planned cost for the arch and bridge would be $1,888,536.76 in 2025.
In 2025, the prizes would be worth $15,737.81 for first, $9,442.68 for second, and $6,295.12 for third.

Sources

Unattributed. “Soldiers and Sailors’ Monument,” Hartford Daily Courant, January 25, 1882, page 1.

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