Museum - Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Kellogg-Eddy House (1808)

Built in 1808 for General Martin Kellogg on Willard Avenue in Newington, the Kellogg-Eddy House was the home of an affluent farming family. A Colonial Revival wing was added in 1928. Kellogg was a descendant of Captain Martin Kellogg, who was one of the captives taken at Deerfield in 1704. He later taught Indian boys at Isaac Hollis’ School. He died after settling in Newington and a modern Middle School in town is named for him. Today the house is open as a historical museum run by the Newington Historical Society & Trust and can be rented for events.

Buttolph-Williams House (1711)

Built around 1711-1720, on Broad Street in Wethersfield, the Buttolph-Williams House was at one time thought to date to the 1690s, when David Buttolph owned the part of the Buttolph family lot on which the house was built. More recent research of land tax records now indicates that house was most likely built during the period the land was owned by Benjamin Belden, who bought the lot in 1711 and sold it to Daniel Williams in 1721, by which time the presence of a “Dwelling House” is clearly indicated in the records. Although not constructed as early as was once assumed, it is still an excellent example of a seventeenth century-style post-medieval English house and shows that a more traditional style continued to be built in the Connecticut River Valley into the eighteenth century.

What was later known as the “Older Williams House” (which can be seen as it appeared before its restoration in a 1930s photograph) was restored in the 1950s and is considered the most faithful restoration of a house of its type in the CT River Valley. The house also helped to inspire the local author, Elizabeth George Speare, to write her historical novel for young adults, The Witch of Blackbird Pond, which won the Newbery Medal in 1959. The Buttolph-Williams House was used as a model for the house depicted in the book, which takes place in Wethersfield in the 1680s.

Today, the Buttolph-Williams House is open to the public as a house museum, owned by the Antiquarian and Landmarks Society. Tours are conducted by the staff of the Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum.

Morgan Memorial Building, Wadsworth Atheneum (1910)

Around 1900, J. Pierpont Morgan, a native of Hartford, was encouraged by his cousin, Rev. Francis Goodwin, to acquire land adjacent to the Wadsworth Atheneum for the museum to use in a future expansion. Goodwin was then the president of the Atheneum. In 1910, Morgan presented the Morgan Memorial Wing in honor of his father. It was designed by the firm of LaFarge and Morris.

Colt Memorial Building, Wadsworth Atheneum (1906)

The Colt Memorial, designed by Benjamin Wistar Morris, was constructed in 1906 as part of the Wadsworth Atheneum complex of buildings. It connects the original structure of 1844 to the Morgan Memorial. Like the Church of the Good Shepherd, it was donated by Elizabeth Colt to house the many art objects she had given to the museum. It is in a Gothic style and features diamond paned windows, which match the original Atheneum building’s Gothic Revival style, and a medieval-style oriel window. In front stands a statue of Nathan Hale. It was created by Enoch Woods Smith as a contest entry in the 1880s for a statue to be placed in the State Capitol. It was not selected, but James J. Goodwin, who had commissioned it, later donated it to the museum in 1892.

BTW, this blog is now two months old!

Wadsworth Atheneum (1844)

The Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford is America’s oldest public art museum. Begun in 1842, and opening its doors in 1844, the Atheneum‘s original castle-like building was donated by the museum’s founder, Daniel Wadsworth, and was designed by Alexander Jackson Davis and Ithiel Town. In addition to the museum, it also once housed the Connecticut Historical Society, the predecessor to the Hartford Public Library, and the Watkinson Library, all under one roof! Three additional buildings would be added to the Atheneum complex in the twentieth century. In 1966, the interior of the original building was completely gutted and restored, while maintaining the original facade.

Katharine Seymour Day House (1884)

Built in 1884 on the corner of Farmington Avenue and Forest Street in Hartford’s Nook Farm neighborhood, for the lawyer and real estate developer Franklin Chamberlin. Chamberlin was also the original owner of of the neighboring Harriet Beecher Stowe House and he sold Mark Twain the land to build his house, which is also next door. The architect of the Chamberlin-Day House was Francis Kimball, who is most well-known for his skyscrapers. It was later owned by Willie O. Burr, owner and editor of the Hartford Times. In 1939, the house was bought by Katharine Seymour Day, the grand-daughter of John and Isabella Beecher Hooker and the grand-niece of Harriet Beecher Stowe. Day was living in the Stowe House and rented the Day House to her cousins. She later used the house to store her collection of art, antiques, and documents, many associated with the Beecher, Stowe, Hooker and Seymour families. In 1941, she founded what would become the Stowe-Day Foundation, now known as the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center. After her death, the Stowe House was restored and the Day House continues today as the offices and research library of the Stowe Center.

Cove Warehouse (1690)

Built around 1690 at Wethersfield, where there was a bend in the Connecticut River in the seventeenth century. At that time, this and other warehouses stored goods like lumber and foodstuffs (including Wethersfield’s famous red onions) before transport as part of the town’s flourishing trade with the West Indies. In exchange, Wethersfield’s merchants and ship captains would import sugar, molasses and rum from the Caribbean. Around 1700, a hurricane changed the course of the river, turning what was once a bend in the river into the present cove. The accompanying flood swept away the other six warehouses, leaving only this one. It was restored in 1934 and is today a museum run by the Wethersfield Historical Society which houses an exhibit on Wethersfield’s maritime history of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.