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The Francis Gillette House is a historic house at 545 Bloomfield Ave. in
Bloomfield, Connecticut Bloomfield is a suburb of Hartford in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The town's population was 21,535 at the 2020 census. Bloomfield is best known as the headquarters of healthcare services company Cigna. History Originally land ...
. Built in 1833, it is locally unusual as a stone house, but is most significant for its association with
Francis Gillette Francis Gillette (December 14, 1807 – September 30, 1879) was a politician from Connecticut, USA. He was the father of actor and playwright William Gillette and politician and editor Edward H. Gillette. Gillette was born in Old Windsor, ...
, one of the state's leading abolitionists in the years before the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
. It 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 1982.


Description and history

The Francis Gillette House is located on the west side of Bloomfield Street, between Cottage Grove Road and Knollwood Drive. Unlike the surrounding 20th-century residential construction, it is set back from the road, and faces to the south. Its main block is roughly cubic and two stories in height, built out of locally quarried fieldstone and covered by a low hip roof. A two-story wood-frame ell extends to the west. Its south-facing facade is three bays wide, with the entrance in the leftmost bay, a window in the second, and a blank space formerly occupied by a brick chimney in the right bay. The home has some local architectural significance but is mostly significant for its association with abolitionist
Francis Gillette Francis Gillette (December 14, 1807 – September 30, 1879) was a politician from Connecticut, USA. He was the father of actor and playwright William Gillette and politician and editor Edward H. Gillette. Gillette was born in Old Windsor, ...
. Gillette was prominent in the state as publisher of the ''Hartford Press'', which he founded to counter the ''
Hartford Courant The ''Hartford Courant'' is the largest daily newspaper in the U.S. state of Connecticut, and is considered to be the oldest continuously published newspaper in the United States. A morning newspaper serving most of the state north of New Haven ...
'' as a vehicle to promote opposition to slavery. There is also some documentation supporting claims that he sheltered runaway slaves at his home. Although this type of
Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. T ...
participation is claimed for many homes and is often not credible, here the claim dates from at least 1886 and been accepted by informed scholars. and


See also

*
National Register of Historic Places listings in Hartford County, Connecticut __NOTOC__ This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places designations in Hartford County, Connecticut. This is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Hartford Coun ...
*
Gillette Castle State Park Gillette Castle State Park straddles the towns of East Haddam and Lyme, Connecticut in the United States, sitting high above the Connecticut River. The castle was designed and built by William Gillette (1853–1937), an American actor most famous f ...
, the home of Francis Gillette's son,
William Gillette William Hooker Gillette (July 24, 1853 – April 29, 1937) was an American actor-manager, playwright, and stage-manager in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is best remembered for portraying Sherlock Holmes on stage and in a 1916 ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gillette, Francis, House Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut Houses completed in 1833 Houses in Hartford County, Connecticut Bloomfield, Connecticut National Register of Historic Places in Hartford County, Connecticut