The Seaverns estate, once the residence of a beloved GCH member, Mrs. Charles Seaverns, had been left by the family to The Hartford College for Women. In the early 1960s, GCH members chose its restoration as their civic project. The estate, “once renowned for its rare shrubs, beautiful trees and native wild flowers,” according to the Hartford Courant, would be restored with an emphasis on “preservationof a heritage…a woodland paradise in the heart of Hartford (from the May 13, 1962 GCH minutes).