The Elliot Mansion (now Elliot Hall or the Elliot Center and formerly the Elliot Community Hospital and the Elliot City Hospital) is a historic house at 229 Main Street in

Keene, New Hampshire Keene is a city in, and the County seat, seat of Cheshire County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 23,047 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, down from 23,409 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. Keene is ho ...

, United States. Built about 1810, it was said to be the finest house in town at the time of its completion, and it remains a high quality example of

Federal period Federal-style architecture is the name for the classicizing architecture built in the newly founded United States between 1780 and 1830, and particularly from 1785 to 1815, which was heavily based on the works of Andrea Palladio with several inn ...

architecture. The house was listed on 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 1976. It now houses facilities of

Keene State College Keene State College is a public liberal arts college in Keene, New Hampshire. It is part of the University System of New Hampshire and the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges. Founded in 1909 as a teacher's college (originally, Keene Norma ...

Description and history

Elliot Hall is located on the east side of the Keene State College campus, set well back from Main Street north of Wyman Street. It is a three-story brick structure covered by a low-pitch roof, and trimmed in granite. The main facade is symmetrical, with sash windows set in rectangular openings featuring stone sills and lintels. A stone

beltcourse A belt course, also called a string course or sill course, is a continuous row or layer of stones or brick set in a wall. Set in line with window sills, it helps to make the horizontal line of the sills visually more prominent. Set between the fl ...

separates the first and second stories, and a course of brick corbelling separates the second and third floors. The main entrance is elaborate, with sidelights and an elliptical

fanlight A fanlight is a form of lunette window, often semicircular or semi-elliptical in shape, with glazing bars or tracery sets radiating out like an open fan. It is placed over another window or a doorway, and is sometimes hinged to a transom. Th ...

window, all sheltered by a portico with slender Ionic columns and turned balustrade. The interior has woodwork, paneling and wallpapering that appear to be original, although there have also been murals drawn on some of its walls by Barry Faulkner. The house was built about 1810 by William Wyman, and was described as the "finest house in town". Wyman, a Keene native, was said to have made his fortune at sea, and owned a store in the town center. Wyman died in 1811; the house was associated for many years with the Elliot family, who lived there from 1845 to about 1892, when the building was converted for use as a hospital known as the Elliot Community Hospital, also called the Elliot City Hospital. It served as Keene's hospital until 1973, when the Cheshire Medical Center was built and then was acquired by

shortly afterwards; it now houses a variety of student support offices.

References

{{NRHP in Cheshire County, New Hampshire Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in New Hampshire Houses completed in 1810 Houses in Cheshire County, New Hampshire Buildings and structures in Keene, New Hampshire National Register of Historic Places in Cheshire County, New Hampshire Keene State College Defunct hospitals in New Hampshire Hospitals established in 1892 Hospitals disestablished in 1973

Description and history

See also

References