Colt Armory: The Ghostly Antiques and the Drone of Echoing Typewriters in

By the Connecticut River, in Hartford, CT, the Colt Armory once pulsed with the lifeblood of the city's industry. Here, Samuel Colt innovated firearm production, spawning jobs and setting the stage for industrialization. A catastrophic fire in 1864 flirted with the factory's annihilation. Remarkably, it was rekindled, its majesty persisting until today. The Colt Armory, draped in a shroud of history, sings two stories, one etched in the iron, rods, and gears, the other whispered in the soft hum of antiquated typewriters.

Indeed, typewriters. For nearly a century, from 1873 to 1902, the Colt Armory churned out Merrit Gally's Universal, claimed as the finest hand-fed platen presses. Today, only nostalgia and scholarly digging remain after these relics vanished in the 1960s. Among the sprawling factory complex, one encounters the Forge Shop and Foundry, the East Armory adorned with its unique blue onion dome, and buildings tailored for World War I production.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons