of Mr. Frederick Wood at 67 Washington Avenue, and it is said that there he had his first experience with New England fried oysters," wrote Nelson R. Burr in Abraham Lincoln: Western Star Over Connecticut. "Another tradition is that while he stayed in Bridgeport a little girl, Mary A. Curtis of Stratford, presented him with a bouquet of flowers and a bunch of salt hay from the Stratford meadows. ... Where the flowers came from at that season, and how the hay could be cheerfully green, is not explained." Lincoln spoke in Washington Hall, an auditorium at what was then Bridgeport City Hall (now McLevy Hall), at the corner of State and Broad streets. Not only was the largest room in the city packed, but a crowd formed outside made up of people who could not get in. He received a standing ovation before taking the 9:07 p.m. train that night back to Manhattan. A plaque now stands at the site in Bridgeport where he gave the speech. Other notables who gave speeches in Bridgeport include Martin Luther King Jr., who spoke three times at the Klein Auditorium in 1961, 1964 and 1966 and at Central High School in 1962; and President George W. Bush who spoke before a small, selected group of Connecticut business people and officials about health care reform at the Playhouse on the Green, just across the street from McLevy Hall, in 2006. Barnum The city's most famous resident has been circus-promoter and once-mayor P.T. Barnum, who built four houses in the city (Iranistan and Waldemere were the most renowned) and housed his circus in-town during winters. The Barnum Museum, housed in a building that was originally contracted for construction by P. T. Barnum himself, has an extensive collection related to P. T. Barnum and the history of Bridgeport. In 1949, Bridgeport initiated a Barnum Day parade which has grown into an annual multi-day festival. Barnum, as well as many other notables, is buried in Mountain Grove Cemetery, Bridgeport, in the park-like setting he designed. The Park City The of Washington Park in East Bridgeport were first set aside as a park in 1851 by William H. Noble and P. T. Barnum, with the land being deeded to the city in 1865. As the city rapidly grew in population, residents recognized the need for more public parks. In 1863, The Standard urged the creation of one