Sunday, November 10, The Hartford Courant, Ken Gosselin

The USS Hartford’s shipboard bell is in storage at the Travelers Cos. in downtown Hartford.

A plaque commemorating the Civil War-era military vessel is squirreled away at the city’s convention center. The whereabouts of the bell’s clapper isn’t known for sure, but it is believed to be in a basement of Constitution Plaza, far below the outdoor mall where the bell was displayed for six decades.

Those pieces of history could come back together now that a more prominent — some say, respectful — location for displaying the bell has been found along Hartford’s riverfront. On Mortensen Riverfront Plaza atop the grand staircase rising from Columbus Boulevard near the Founders Bridge, an obscure ticketing booth would be renovated to display the 300 pound-plus bell.

The bell would provide a historical and seafaring connection at the same location where Hartford once was a port of trade and witnessed the departures and arrivals of the local members of the military. The artifact also could help illuminate Hartford’s broader economic ties with the U.S. military as well as lesser known stories about military service connected to the city.

Other alternative display locations were considered, including the nearby Connecticut Convention Center. But the convention center is not open to the public year-round, so the riverfront plaza — if all local approvals were secured — was deemed the best location. Mortensen plaza, operated and maintained by Riverfront Recapture for the city, was designed to reconnect the city to its riverfront cut off in the 1960s by interstate highway construction.

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