1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die Read Online Free PDF Page B

TIME: Christmastime, when the Mark Twain House is decked out in holiday splendor.

    The Mark Twain House contains personal items including the billiards table where the author spread out his manuscript when editing.
    America’s Oldest Public Art Museum
T HE W ADSWORTH A THENEUM
    Hartford, Connecticut
    The Wadsworth Atheneum opened in 1842 and has expanded a number of times since, but the Gothic Revival main building remains the architectural centerpiece of the nation’s first public art museum. Hartford art patron Daniel Wadsworth founded the museum to share the wonders of art with the public—a concept unheard of at the time. The museum’s permanent collection slowly grew to comprise some 45,000 works dating back a few thousand years. Be sure to view the first-rate collection of Hudson River School paintings, including some by Frederic Church, a Hartford native son and friend of Wadsworth. You can also view
Elizabeth Eggington,
the oldest dated American portrait (1664); a fine selection of Egyptian, Greek, and Roman bronzes; and some notable French and American Impressionist works, including some by Connecticut artists (see p. 6). It also holds a rich collection of Pilgrim Century American furniture and decorative arts from the 1600s. Outside, note the enormous steel stabile
Stegosaurus
(1973), by Alexander Calder, who spent much of his life in Connecticut.
    Downtown Hartford has a few other noteworthy attractions. History buffs should seek out the Old State House, built in 1796, the nation’s oldest still-standing statehouse. The famous
Amistad
trial, immortalized by the Steven Spielberg movie (1997), took place in this stunning building. Inside you can see an original Gilbert Stuart portrait of Washington in the restored senate chamber. The state legislature met here until the early 1870s, when the new Connecticut State Capitol was constructed nearby in Bushnell Park. A leafy 38-acre oasis, it’s one of the Northeast’s most striking urban parks, with a number of sculptures and the still-working 1914 Bushnell Park Carousel. But the gothic and highly ornate Connecticut StateCapitol, one of the most distinctive such buildings in the country, is the park’s most prominent feature. It was designed by Richard Upjohn and was completed in 1878 at an astonishing cost of $2.5 million.
    At the end of your outing, enjoy a meal at Max Downtown, the centerpiece of the revered Max restaurant group (with several excellent eateries around the region). This swanky, clubby space is a favorite of the neighborhood’s politicos and CEOs keen on the sophisticated regional American fare, such as grilled veal chop stuffed with caramelized onions, mascarpone, and pancetta.
    W HERE: 110 miles northeast of New York City.
Visitor info:
Tel 800-793-4480 or 860-244-8181; www.visitctriver.com. W ADSWORTH A THENEUM: Tel 860-278-2670; www.wadsworthatheneum.org .
When:
closed Mon–Tues. O LD S TATE H OUSE: Tel 860-522-6766; www.ctosh.org .
When:
closed Sun. C ONNECTICUT S TATE C APITOL: Tel 860-240-0222; www.cga.ct.gov/capitoltours .
When:
Mon–Fri; also Sat, Apr–Oct. M AX D OWNTOWN: Tel 860-522-2530; www.maxrestaurantgroup.com.
Cost:
dinner $35. B EST TIMES: early June for the Black-Eyed & Blues music festival in Bushnell Park; late June for Rose Weekend at Elizabeth Park’s stunning rose gardens; mid-July for Great Hartford Festival of Jazz; mid-Aug for Taste of Hartford food festival.

    The State Capitol is crowned by a gold-leaf dome.
    Rural Sophistication Under the Elms
L ITCHFIELD H ILLS
    Connecticut
    The notion that the real New England is an endless drive from the urban chaos of New York City is dispelled upon approaching the Litchfield Hills, a bucolic swath of horse farms, verdant woodland, and sophisticated villages tucked into rolling hills. Unfolding beyond every bend is a classic Currier & Ives landscape of 18th- and 19th-century saltbox farmhouses, red barns, imposing clapboard mansions, stone walls, and quiet lakes such as