Contract for landscaping Sigourney Square Park made by Old Town Farm Committee

The installation of trees and shrubs, “a forest garden,” was largely done at the suggestion of Melvin H. Hapgood.

1. Along with identifying the company that initially designed the park’s landscape, the article also gave a description of how the park was planned to be.
2. The article also suggested that the creation of the new Hartford Board of Parks Commissioners influenced the final plans for the park.

The nursery’s landscape engineer was identified only as “Mr. Parker.”

Neighbors of the planned park expressed their opposition to the plans for the park on August 17, 1894.

On May 18, 1895, the Courant will report that the contract for landscaping had gone to J. Alex McClunie, not Shady Hill Nursery Company, and that work was underway.

1. “The new west side section of the city [which] has been recently opened up by the Garden and Ashley street trolley line, will be the first in the city to drive a marked benefit from the new order of things made possible by the park department amendment to the city charter.”
2. “Now that the laying out of such a square in an ornamental manner is will receive at the hands of the new park commissioners, it has been decided to make it a forest garden of trees and hardy shrubs.”

1. Melvin Hapgood was a local architect who also built a home for himself on several lots of the old town farm property on Woodland Street between Sargeant and Ashley streets.
2. The amendment to the city charter permitting the city to create a more robust park commission was passed by the General Assembly in March 1895, and the new board of park commissioners was constituted on April 15, 1895.

Unattributed.  “Sigourney Square,” Hartford Courant, April 5, 1895, page 4.