George Dunham House (1868)

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The Italianate house of George Dunham, on Lovely Street in Unionville, was built in 1868. The front portico with columns was added later. In 1860, together with A.S Upson, Dunham had acquired a company which produced nuts and bolts. Originally called Upson and Dunham, the company incorporated in 1865 as the Union (later the Upson) Nut Company. Dunham invented the Dunham forged nut machine and would go on to invent a number of others.

The Eugene Kenyon Farmhouse (1870)

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The first house to be built north of Farmington Avenue, in Hartford’s West End, was an 1870 farmhouse on Kenyon Street. The house was built by the developer Eugene Kenyon, who was laying out streets and planning to construct homes in what was then an area of farmland. Kenyon’s own home was on nearby Farmington Avenue and the farmhouse was soon purchased by its first owner, Maria K. Stanley. An economic downturn in the later 1870s stalled the development of the neighborhood and Kenyon lost his money, but by the 1880s, the pace of house construction in the West End accelerated. Many classic Victorian homes were constructed on Kenyon Street around 1900 and the older farmhouse was embellished over time, combining elements of the Gothic Revival and Italianate styles.