The Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch located in Bushnell Park on Trinity Street was designed by architect George Keller using sculptors Casper Buberl, Samuel Kitson, and Albert Entress. At 116 feet tall it was the first permanent triumphal arch in America. It combines Gothic Revival, medieval, and classical features in brownstone and terra cotta.

The Reverend Francis Goodwin had the idea for the monument as a bridge and arch, and a competition was started for the design of a Civil War monument different from the conventional single shaft memorial so widely used in other cities. When the competition yielded no designs that could be accomplished within the budget Keller submitted his plans which were accepted. Keller solved the cost problem by positioning the arch at one end of the bridge on solid ground, making it possible to use the existing bridge, and by using local sandstone and terra-cotta instead of granite and marble. The arch is significant artistically because it combines disparate architectural styles in an unusual but successful design. Medieval towers with conical roofs, a monumental Gothic arch, and a classical sculptured frieze seldom are found in one structure.

George Keller was an Irish immigrant who came to Hartford to work for James G. Batterson. While working for Batterson he also designed the Soldiers National Monument in Gettysburg, and the U.S. Soldier Monument at Antietam.

The arch is dedicated to all men from Hartford who served in the Civil War.

Symbols identifying the four services are in the spandrels of the Gothic arch, an anchor for the navy and crossed cannon for artillery on the north side, and crossed sabers for cavalry and crossed rifles for infantry on the south side.

The arch blends the elements of a Greek frieze, a pointed Gothic-Roman arch, and two Norman castle towers. It is constructed of Connecticut brownstone save for the buff-toned terra-cotta of the frieze. The span of the arch is 30 feet. It springs from two massive round towers, each of them 67 feet in circumference.

Each tower is topped with a conical roof, terminating at a point 116 feet above the sidewalk, and surmounted by a “finial angel” playing a musical instrument–one a trumpet, the other cymbals.

Within the towers there are stairways and spaces for recording the names of the fallen heroes. A walkway inside the parapets connects the two towers. A decorative feature of these battlements, and facing each way, is the sculptured seal of the City of Hartford.

Below the walkway, but still some 40 feet above the ground, the giant frieze is stretched across the street and around the towers. The bas-relief figures are life size. The frieze on the north and the frieze on the south are different in character, for they were independently executed by different sculptors. One frieze is separated from the other, at the east and west as they are carried around the towers, by a naval and a military “trophy” in sculpture.

The frieze on the north facade, by Samuel Kitson, tells the story of the war, starting on the right with a figure of General Ulysses S. Grant surveying infantry and cavalry on the advance, while on the left marines leap from a boat and rush upon the rear of the Confederates.

The south frieze, by Caspar Buberl, a frequent Keller associate, tells the story of peace. In it a noble female figure- the City of Hartford- surveys her citizens gathered to welcome the returning soldiers after they have struck their tents, put out the camp fires, and made their journey home. The friezes were executed by the Boston Terra-cotta Company.

Six figures, three on each tower below the bas-relief, were completed in 1894. These sculptures, according to a description of the arch circulated at its 1886 dedication, were to be the “Farmer” with one hand on his plow and the other on his gun and five other figures in similar transitional poses- the “Blacksmith,” the “Mason,” the “Merchant,” the “Student,” and the “Carpenter.” During the years between 1886 and the time of their execution, Keller made one change.

The “Merchant” was replaced by an African American man who with one arm is breaking the chains of his bondage and in the other hand is holding a slate on which is inscribed the alphabet. Albert Entress carved the statues.

Behind a simple iron door in the east tower of the Hartford arch are interred the ashes of Keller and his wife. A plain inscription reads: George Keller- architect. The arch was repaired in 1986-88. At that time, the finial angels were replaced with bronze figures.