At 47 Vine Street in Hartford is a house built in 1915. An elaborately decorated variation on a basic American foursquare design, it was most likely designed and constructed by its first owner, Charles B. Andrus (although there is a Charles B. Andrus buried in Manchester who died in 1910), who was a local builder.
The house at 96 Cornwall Avenue in Cheshire is an American Foursquare built in 1903. It was constructed for James R. Lanyon, who was born in New Hamburg, NY, but five years later came to Cheshire, where his grandfather, James A. Lanyon, had been superintendent of the Barite Mines. Lanyon served as town clerk of Cheshire for 59 years, from 1894 to 1953. He served in the Connecticut General Assembly and chaired the Republican Town Committee. As described in Taylor’s Legislative Souvenir of Connecticut for 1901-1902, “Mr. Lanyon has been the recognized leader of his party in Cheshire—its leader without being its boss—thus winning the admiration of his party associates and the profound respect of his political opponents. He is a highly respected member of the Masons and Odd Fellows.”
The Glastonbury Villa, on Main Street in Glastonbury, is an American foursquare house built in 1920 by John Jacoon. The exterior of the house displays rubble masonry on the first floor and stuccoed walls on the second floor. There is also a stone fountain in front of the house. The use of stone masonry is commonly found in Italian vernacular architecture and reveal the influence of Italian immigrants in Glastonbury. The name, “Glastonbury Villa,” can be seen between the two windows and the porch on the second floor, on the side of the house facing Main Street. The home is now leased as a town-owned residential property.
Another example of an “American Foursquare” home, the house at 1643 Boulevard in West Hartford was built around 1900 in what was the town’s first modern subdivision, begun in 1896. The area is now the Boulevard-Raymond Road Historic District. The house’s current owners won a 2007 West Hartford Historic Preservation Award for their construction of a new one-story addition to their Colonial Revival-influenced home which is compatible with the original structure and matches it seamlessly.
The Arthur Stiles House, built in 1916 on Main Street in South Windsor, is an example of the American Foursquare style of house. Popular throughout America from the 1890s to the 1930s, these economical cubes with hipped roofs were a reaction to the more complicated and expensive Victorian house styles. This Foursquare was constructed for Mary Holman, who sold it to her nephew Arthur Stiles for $2,000.
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