Bushnell Park is the oldest publicly funded park in the United States. It was conceived by the Reverend Horace Bushnell in 1854 at the time when the need for open public spaces was just beginning to be recognized. Reverend Bushnell asked his good friend and Hartford native Frederick Law Olmsted to design the park, but at the time, Olmsted was designing New York's Central Park and recommended Jacob Weidenmann, a Swiss-born landscape architiect. Weidenmann's plan for the park included graceful paths and clusters of trees and enhance the presence of the Park River which flowed through the park.

Today the park's 37 green acres with its artwork, sculpture, and play areas and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. More than one million people visit the park during the year, including the public event, the historic Carousel and art exhibitions at the Pump House Gallery and hundreds who walk, run, bicylce and simple rest in the park.