At the intersection of Buckingham and Main Streets,
Buckingham Square Park is the southern gateway to the SoDo neighborhood, but its current condition belies its potential uses and historic significance. In Spring 2014, the SoDo NRZ, with assistance from the City of Hartford, initiated a clean up and restoration of this park as part of our
Sustainable Living Initiative. Funds from the project came from the organization's budget as well as fundraisers such as the annual Downtown Hartford Progressive Dinner.
SoDo joined the
Great American Clean Up on
Saturday, May 3, 2014 for the first work party. After some initial heavy tree work by the City DPW, a group of neighbors had a fun and productive morning of trimming, raking, planting and fence painting. The new sign was added during a city-wide park signage program in Spring, 2020.
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| A Google Maps photo of Buckingham Square Park in Fall, 2020. |
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| A Google Earth shot of Buckingham Square Park "before". |
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| Shots from the May 3 initial clean-up. |
Buckingham Square occupies a central place in early Hartford history. Main and Buckingham Streets were laid out in the original settlement of the town; a map of 1640 shows a number of houses in the area, which was immediately south of the Little (or Park) River. It was at the intersection of these two highways that in 1670 a dissenting group from the First Church put up a meetinghouse; until 1827, their meetinghouse stood in the center of the present Buckingham Street and extended out into Main Street. When the present church building was erected on a site further south, the old site was laid out as a park. This park, now known as Buckingham Square, was approved by a Town Meeting in 1830. Buckingham Street was named after Joseph Buckingham, treasurer of the colony, and son of the second pastor of the Second Church
(historic information via).
