But along with this growth came some growing pains, including crime, crowded tenements, poverty, poor sanitation, polluted water and air.

Furthermore, it was hard to imagine a less likely place for a green, peaceful park than Bushnell's proposed site, which was home to two leather tanneries, a soapworks, pigsties and other livestock–even a garbage dump.

Reverend Bushnell asked his good friend and Hartford native, Frederick Law Olmsted, to design the layout of the park.

Later additions to the park include: the statue of Israel Putnam in 1874, sculpted by John Quincy Adams Ward; the statue of Horace Wells in 1875, sculpted by Truman Howe Bartlett; the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch, designed by George Keller in 1886 to commemorate those who fought in the American Civil War; the Corning Fountain in 1899, with sculpture by J. Massey Rhind; the 1914 carousel in 1974 (with a Wurlitzer #153 Band Organ providing the music); and the performance pavilion in 1995.

Today Bushnell Park is a focal point in downtown Hartford, and it is the site of several festivals and music events each year.