The Hartford House

One of about ten prefabricated buildings brought to Kansas on the steamboat Hartford in the spring of 1855, this house traces its origins to a voyage that left Cincinnati, Ohio, on April 26, 1855, carrying passengers who intended to settle in a town called Manhattan at the head of the Kansas River. After a difficult trip, the Hartford ran aground on June 1 near the confluence of the Blue and Kansas Rivers, close to the newly established town of Boston. Boston's settlers invited the passengers to join their town and agreed to rename it Manhattan. After the cargo was unloaded, the steamboat headed downstream, ran aground again near St. Mary's, and was destroyed by fire in October 1855. Manhattan Methodists, who founded their congregation aboard the Hartford, saved the ship's bell, which now hangs in the Riley County Historical Museum. In 1971, this house, then part of a larger house on Colorado Street, was donated to the Riley County Historical Society by Mr. and Mrs. John Meisner, and the Rotary Club and Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity helped restore it and move it to this site.

Manhattan, Kansas · United States