The Gridley-Parson-Staples 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 1554 Farmington Avenue in
Farmington, Connecticut
Farmington is a town in Hartford County in the Farmington Valley area of central Connecticut in the United States. The population was 26,712 at the 2020 census. It sits 10 miles west of Hartford at the hub of major I-84 interchanges, 20 miles ...
. Probably built about 1760, it is the oldest surviving house in northwestern Farmington, and a fine example of 18th century Georgian architecture. It is now home to the Farmington Historical Society, and 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 ...
in 1981.
Description and history
The Gridley-Parson-Staples House is located on the east side of Farmington Avenue (
Connecticut Route 4
Route 4 is an east–west primary state highway connecting rural Litchfield County to the Greater Hartford area of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It runs from the town of Sharon to the town of West Hartford.
Route description
Route ...
) amid a cluster of municipal buildings, including the town hall, public library, and high school. It is a -story wood-frame structure, with a side-gable roof, two interior brick chimneys, and a clapboarded exterior. The main facade is five bays wide, with a center entrance sheltered by a Colonial Revival flat-roof portico supported by Doric columns. Above the entrance is a three-part Palladian style window with narrow side windows; the other windows on the facade are standard 6-over-6 sash. A -story ell, possibly of older construction, extends to the rear. The interior of the house follows a center-hall plan, with an unusually wide central hall, and an enclosed stair. The downstairs fireplace surrounds exhibit particularly fine 18th-century carving.
The construction date of the house and the rear ell are uncertain, owing to a lack of documentary record and conflicting architectural evidence. Construction of the rear ell is traditionally given as 1732, when Thomas Hurlburt owned this property, but it appears to have been extensively altered around 1760, when the main house was probably built by Elnathan Gridley. A house is documented as appearing here on a 1759 map, and the house was likely near its present form in 1781, when Elnathan Gridley's estate was inventoried. The property associated with the house originally extended all the way down to the
Farmington River
The Farmington River is a river, U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 in length along its main stem, located in northwest Connecticut with major tributaries ex ...
(across Farmington Avenue). The house underwent a major restoration in 1976, and now houses museum displays and offices of the historical society.
[
]
See also
*
References
External links
Farmington Historical Society
{{National Register of Historic Places
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut
National Register of Historic Places in Hartford County, Connecticut
Colonial Revival architecture in Connecticut
Houses completed in 1760
Houses in Farmington, Connecticut
Historic house museums in Connecticut
Museums in Hartford County, Connecticut