Landers, Frary & Clark, a New Britain company which manufactured cutlery, was founded in the 1850s by George M. Landers. The company (pdf) was known for such products as the Universal Food Chopper/Grinder. George M. Landers‘ son, Charles Smith Landers, married Grace Judd, the daughter of Loren F. Judd, of North & Judd, a company which manufactured saddlery hardware. Their son was also named George M. Landers. Grace Judd Landers later lived in a house which on Lexington Street in New Britain. It was built around 1910 for William H. Hart, president of Stanley Works, and sold to Mrs. Landers upon the death of Hart’s widow in 1929. It is located on the edge of Walnut Hill Park, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. The style of the house combines elements of the Spanish Mission style (the use of stucco and stone and the Spanish style roofing tiles) and the Craftsman style (the gables and overhanging eaves with decorative brackets).
In 1935, Grace Judd Landers bequeathed the house to the the Art Museum of the New Britain Institute, now the New Britain Museum of American Art. The building was remodeled as an art museum based on designs by William F. Brooks, of the firm Davis & Brooks, and opened in 1937. In 2007, a new museum building was opened, connected to the Landers House, which has again been renovated and now houses an art lab, library and art studio.
