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Welcome!

Over 25,000 page views in under a year!
Thank you!  

Views of the Renovated Hartford Public High School
2008

The school's original 1883 Owl, carved in the studio of Albert Entress in Hartford was removed from the building during the renovations in April, 2006.

The 1883 Owl is a rare piece.  Although many figures have been carved in brownstone, carvings of animals and birds are quite rare.  Because of its age and the porosity of the stone, our Owl is too fragile to be returned to the exterior of the building.  Thus, replicas have been provided for the gables.

We are waiting for Diggs Construction Co. to provide a showcase so that the 1883 Owl can be placed in the new entrance lobby of the school, where under his watchful eye the students of today will enter HPHS every morning. 

HPHS has Four Academies.  Each has its own office and staff.

Freshman Academy:  Tori Niles, principal

Nursing Academy:  Dr. Zandralyn Gordon, acting principal

Green Technology & Engineering: Jacqueline Ryan, principal

Law & Government:  Adam Johnson, principal

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The Main Number for the school:  695-1300

Webmaster of this Site:        hphsweb@yahoo.com 

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The HPHS Museum & Archive

The HPHS Museum & Archive is a Unique Feature of the Renovated HPHS.  It is the Only One of Its Kind in a Public High School.  The Collections Include:  Antique School Furniture, Paintings, Photographs, Statuary, and Historical Documents.

There are a number of surplus classbooks available for some years.  

If you are interested in a classbook or would like to visit the Museum, please contact Mr. Williams by email or telephone:

  hphs55@aol.com or

hphs55@sbcglobal.net 

 Museum telephone:  695-1405

General View of the Museum

Looking into the Archive

"The Horsemen Frieze"
Plaster Cast

  Gift of Bob Saunders, 2006
Formerly in the Art Room of HPHS Hopkins Street, 1883-1963

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The Stuart Munro-Lenox George Washington

This large oil painting was displayed for over forty years at the second floor landing of the main stairwell/ flagpole entrance.  It is our last major painting that requires restoration, a project that will cost over $30,000. 

Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828) has been called the “Father of American Portraiture,” and in 1795 he began painting portraits of George Washington from life.  One of his original portraits of our first president is owned by the Raymond E. Baldwin Museum of Connecticut History and is on display at the Old State House in Hartford .  It was painted in 1801 and it is called a “Munro-Lenox” version for the following reasons.  Peter Jay Munro, nephew of Supreme Court Justice John Jay, commissioned Gilbert Stuart to do a full-length portrait of Washington .  Munro met Stuart in New York and posed in his uncle’s court robes in order for Stuart to finish the portrait.  James Lenox bought the portrait in 1845 from Munro’s descendants and through Lenox it eventually came to the New York Public Library. 

Three replicas of this painting, two for the state of Rhode Island and one for Connecticut were painted from this portrait by Stuart himself, and these are well documented.  The Connecticut portrait in the Old State House is the only Washington portrait to be seen in its original setting, and it is registered in the National Portrait Gallery Collection as CT 140074.

The Hartford Public High School painting is the one that was commissioned for the New Haven State House when Connecticut had two capitals.  In a newspaper article probably from 1879 we read that the original at the state capitol building in Hartford was being restored by Captain T. F. Burke at his studio on Asylum Street .  Reference is made to our painting:  “The Washington portrait which hangs in the alderman’s chamber in the City Hall (Old State House) is a copy of the one at Captain Burke’s rooms.  This copy was made by Stuart himself.”  This is doubtful.   As of 2007, the real painter of the portrait is still unknown.  It is not an original Stuart.

The painting measures 96” x 60,” and with the frame it measures 116” x 79.”

Principal L. Henry Taylor (1962-1967) and Mrs. Taylor cleaned the HPHS painting themselves. It was restored and given a linen backing by the Adam C. Wasicki Art Center in Middletown sometime before May, 1964. For a few years, it was displayed over Alma Goldstein’s desk in the main office of the Broad Street Building until 1963 when it narrowly escaped the wrecker’s ball and was brought to the Forest Street Building and placed at the second floor landing of the main stairwell.

The painting was given a plexiglass cover to protect it from vandalism, and during the forty-two years the painting was in this location the cover’s surface deteriorated from the dust and bright morning sunlight coming through the huge stairwell windows.  As a result, it was very difficult to appreciate the beauty of the painting.  In June, 2005, the painting was removed and transferred to the Mark Twain House & Museum storage facility as a temporary measure while the school was being renovated. 

Hartford Public High School ’s George Washington has been registered in the National Portrait Gallery/ Smithsonian Institution Catalog (July, 2009), and once restored it will be placed over the fireplace mantel (from the Hopkins St. Main Office) in the Lewis Fox Memorial Library Media Center . 

As of January, 2009, $2,000 has been raised for the restoration of this fine painting.  We are applying for grants under the sponsorship of the HPHS Alumni Association, a 501 (c) (3) organization incorporated under the laws of the State of Connecticut in 1889.  The Association is empowered to receive bequests for any purpose connected with the school.

Donations for the restoration of George Washington are greatly appreciated.  If you would like to help, please make your check out to "HPHS Alumni Association/Archive Fund," and note "GW Restoration."

Please send the check  to the following address:

R. J. Luke Williams, Archivist
HPHS Museum
55 Forest Street
Hartford, CT   06105

Last Updated:
05/16/2009

Comments? Contact the Webmaster at: hphsweb@yahoo.com