Something like a castle sits at 600 Main Street in downtown Hartford: the Wadsworth Atheneum. This is the museum founded in 1842 and opened in 1844, the oldest continually operating public art museum in the United States. The building you face is the distinctive, castle-like structure designed by Alexander Jackson Davis and Ithiel Town on the site of Daniel Wadsworth’s family home.
Inside, the Wadsworth houses a rich sweep of works: European Baroque art, ancient Egyptian and Classical bronzes, French and American Impressionist paintings, and Hudson River School landscapes sit alongside modernist masterpieces, contemporary works, and collections of early American furniture and decorative arts. With 75,000 square feet (7,000 m2) of exhibition space, it is the largest art museum in the state of Connecticut, and it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. The museum is also a member of the North American Reciprocal Museums program, a reminder of its civic reach.
Notice the castle-like stonework and silhouette that speak to Hartford's civic ambition along 600 Main Street.