The Philip Johnson Glass House (1949)

A particularly well-known and well-respected Connecticut modern house is the Philip Johnson Glass House. Designed by the architect Johnson and built on his 47-acre estate in New Canaan, the Glass House is considered a masterpiece in its use of floor-to-ceiling sheets of glass, set between black steel piers. The minimalist structure was planned in 1945 and finished in 1949. Johnson was inspired by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe‘s 1945 design for the Farnsworth House, located in Plano, Illinois, the construction of which was not completed until 1951. While the wealthy Johnson retained a residence in New York City, he would often retreat to his New Canaan estate, where the Glass House was only the first of several structures he would build on the property. After 1960, Johnson lived in company with his longtime companion, David Whitney, an art critic and curator, who helped with landscaping the grounds and collecting art for the estate. In 1986, Johnson had donated the Glass House to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, retaining a life estate lease. Johnson and Whitney died in 2005 and in 2007, the Glass House was opened to the public for tours. While there is an endowment for the property, maintenance and restoration costs for the various buildings remains high. (more…)

Ethan Allen Birthplace (1736)

Happy New Year!!! Our first building of 2011 is the birthplace of a hero of the American Revolution. Ethan Allen led the Green Mountain Boys in the capture of Fort Ticonderoga and then served in the American military expedition against Canada in 1775. Although famous as a champion of statehood for Vermont, with a Homestead that can be visited in Burlington VT, Allen was born on January 21, 1738 in Litchfield CT. In 1740, his parents Joseph and Mary Allen, moved the family from the Litchfield house, built in 1736, to a new farm in Cornwall. Ethan took over the farm after his father’s death in 1755 and later struck out on his own, establishing a charcoal blast furnace in Salisbury in 1761. He eventually settled in Vermont, having purchased land in the area then known as the New Hampshire Grants. Ethan Allen also wrote a book, Reason: the Only Oracle of Man, first published in 1784.

Mary Hepburn Smith House (1854)

At the corner of West River and Maple streets (144 West River St.) in Milford is an Italianate mansion built sometime in the 1850s. It was once the home of Mary Augusta Hepburn Smith (1825-1912), born in New York City, who married Edwin Porter Smith (1813-1890) in 1847. Maintaining her summer home in Milford after her husband’s death, she became, in 1896, a founder and the first Regent of the Freelove Baldwin Stowe Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Mary A. Hepburn Smith made a lasting impact on Milford when she purchased the commercial and industrial properties (mills, factories and low-rent housing affected by an 1899 fire) across from her home along the Wepawaug River (where Duck Ponds and a Kissing Bridge would be created), which she donated to the city as a park. Earlier this year, Mary Hepburn Smith was formally inducted into the Milford Hall of Fame.

Waveny House (1912)

Waveny House is a Tudor mansion in New Canaan, built in 1912 for Lewis Lapham, one of the founders of Texaco. The Lapham family spent summers at their New Canaan estate, most of which was given to the town by the family in 1967. At that time, Waveny House itself was sold to the town by Mrs. Ruth Lapham Lloyd. The house was designed by W. B. Tubby and the grounds by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.. It was named by Mrs. Lapham after the Waveny River in England where the Lapham ancestors had once lived. Today the house and grounds are a community recreation area called Waveny Park. Waveny House is often rented for weddings and other social functions and cultural activities.

Charles H. Farnam House (1884)

The house of Yale Professor Benjamin Silliman, a chemist and geologist, was built in 1807 and once stood at 28 Hillhouse Avenue in New Haven. In 1871, part of the house was moved to 87 Trumbull Street and other parts were distributed to other locations around the city. In 1884, Charles Henry Farnam, a lawyer, had his house, designed by J. Cleaveland Cady, built on the same site on Hillhouse Avenue. An addition to the house, designed by architect Leoni Robinson, was constructed in 1898. Since 1920, the house has been owned by Yale University and is currently used by the Department of Economics.