The Bellamy-Ferriday House and Garden (also known as the Joseph Bellamy House) is a

historic house museum A historic house museum is a house of historic significance that has been transformed into a museum. Historic furnishings may be displayed in a way that reflects their original placement and usage in a home. Historic house museums are held to a ...

at 9 Main Street North in

Bethlehem, Connecticut Bethlehem is a town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 3,385 at the 2020 census, down from 3,607 at the 2010 census. The town center is a historic district and a census-designated place (CDP). The town's name h ...

. The main house was built between about 1754 and 1767 by the Rev.

Joseph Bellamy Joseph Bellamy (20 February 1719 – 6 March 1790) was an American Congregationalist pastor and a leading preacher, author, educator and theologian in New England in the second half of the 18th century. He was a disciple of Jonathan Edwards, and ...

, a prominent Congregationalist minister who played an influential role in the

First Great Awakening The First Great Awakening (sometimes Great Awakening) or the Evangelical Revival was a series of Christian revivals that swept Britain and its thirteen North American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s. The revival movement permanently affecte ...

. The property, the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1982. The house and surrounding gardens are owned and operated by

Connecticut Landmarks Connecticut Landmarks is a non-profit organization that has restored and operates significant historic house museums in Connecticut. Headquartered in Hartford, Connecticut, the organization was founded in 1936 as the Antiquarian & Landmarks Societ ...

; admission is charged. Another 81 acres of forest and fields adjacent to the museum property are maintained as Bellamy Preserve, the town of Bethlehem's "Central Park," by the Bethlehem Land Trust.

Description and history

The Bellamy-Ferriday House is located just north of the village green in the center of Bethlehem. Its landscaped acreage is screened from the green by mature trees, and is accessed via a drive on Main Street North (

Connecticut Route 61 Route 61 is a secondary state highway in rural northwestern Connecticut connecting the towns of Woodbury and Morris. It serves as the main north–south highway within the towns of Bethlehem and Morris. Route description Route 61 begins as ...

). The house consists of a -story main block, oriented facing south, with a two-story ell and modern wing to the north. The main block is roughly square, and is topped by a gabled roof with a central chimney and gabled dormers. Its exterior is finished in wooden clapboards with corner quoin blocks, and there is a projecting two-story entry section in the rightmost bay. It has a Palladian window in the second floor, and a shallow portico supported by four fluted Ionic columns. Reverend

was granted of land on the north side of what is now Bethlehem village (it was then known as the North Purchase of

Woodbury Woodbury may refer to: Geography Antarctica *Woodbury Glacier, a glacier on Graham Land, British Antarctic Territory Australia * Woodbury, Tasmania, a locality in Australia England * Woodbury, Bournemouth, an area in Dorset *Woodbury, East Devo ...

, incorporated as Bethlehem 1787) in 1738, when he became the North Purchase parish's first settled minister. Through the 1740s and 1750s Bellamy rose in prominence as one of the leading theologians of the

. The traditional history of this house is that its ell was built about 1754 on land Bellamy purchased in 1741 that stood adjacent to his large tract, and is where his family lived while the main block was built. The ell lacks evidence of a chimney adequate for cooking and heating, however, and it is more likely the house was built and occupied around 1760. Later, Henry Ferriday bought the property; his daughter, Carolyn Woolsey Ferriday, owned it until her death in 1990. Under the terms of her will, the house and several surrounding acres were subsequently turned into a small museum by the Antiquarian and Landmarks Society, now known as

. The museum features American and European antiques and a formal parterre garden with a collection of roses, peonies and lilacs. A weeping willow on the property once stood at the grave of

Napoleon Bonaparte Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

References

External links

Bellamy-Ferriday House and Garden (ctlandmarks.org)
* ttp://bethlehemlandtrustct.org/our-properties.html Bethlehem Land Trust (bethlehemlandtrustct.org/our-properties.html) {{DEFAULTSORT:Bellamy, Joseph, House Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut Houses completed in 1760 Historic house museums in Connecticut Museums in Litchfield County, Connecticut Houses in Litchfield County, Connecticut Bethlehem, Connecticut Connecticut Landmarks National Register of Historic Places in Litchfield County, Connecticut Historic district contributing properties in Connecticut

Description and history

See also

References

External links