The Queen Anne style house of Frank S. Brown, on Hartford Avenue in Wethersfield, was built sometime in the 1880s. Brown was a Hartford merchant who, in 1866, joined with James M. Thomson and William McWhirter to form the dry goods firm of Brown, Thomson & Co., which became a major New England department store. Brown retired from the company in 1890 and in 1893 the house was sold out of the Brown family. Ellsworth S. Grant, the Connecticut historian, former mayor of West Hartford and brother-in-law of Katharine Hepburn, was later born in the house. In 1920, Minnie Pricone and Mary Rometta, with their husbands and families, moved into the house. They owned the Marie Phillips Dress Company and tailoring work was done in the basement area of the house.
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We would love it if you’d do an article on the soon-to-open Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center and Theater. It is housed in an Historical Landmark building on Main Street in Hepburn’s beloved seaside town of Old Saybrook, CT
We open in July. Here is contact info:
You may contact the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center at 860-510-5000 or by writing to:
Chuck Still
Executive Director
Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center
302 Main Street
Old Saybrook, CT 06475
cstill {at} town.old-saybrook.ct(.)us
Dear Ann-
I once lived in the house down the street from Miss Porter’s in Farmington, CT that was owned by James Marin(?)Thompson.
It is about a mile down the street off Route 10 going away from the Farmington Country Club (where I worked @ the time as well as being a massage therapist for “Jim” in his last days). I know that he was friends w/ Frank Loyd Wright, as I stumbled upon countless drawings by Frank while I helped clean out an enormous cellar at the residence. It is on a corner with a large facade and a large back property where an old reed barn sits. I’d be interested in obtaining an image of this house and I always wondered what came of it.By the way, I’ve always enjoyed you on NPR,where I am a member and religious listener.
Thank you for responding.
Sincerely-
Jeffrey W. Larson