Overview
The Old State House commands its square in Hartford, Connecticut, completed in 1796 to designs attributed to Charles Bulfinch — among the nation's oldest statehouses, its senate chamber restored beneath the gilded dome, and its courtroom the opening stage in 1839 of the Amistad proceedings, the enslaved Mende captives' fight that this record honours as the building's weightiest history. Civic life moved on, the building cycled through city hall and museum eras, and its beloved eccentricity endures: Joseph Steward's museum of curiosities, recreated upstairs with its celebrated two-headed calf. Telling is caretaker-gentle: staff and visitors describe footsteps in the courtroom and on the grand stair after hours, doors and lights misbehaving, a figure associated in tradition with a long-serving custodian, and unease near the curiosities cabinet — accounts the institution holds lightly. Present the Old State House as constitutional-era civic treasure first — Amistad foremost — with its lore a genial afterword. Visiting details from the official pages.