The Hatheway House, also known as the Phelps-Hatheway House & Garden 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 55 South Main Street in
Suffield, Connecticut. The sprawling house has sections built as early as 1732, with significant alterations made in 1795 to a design by
Asher Benjamin for
Oliver Phelps, a major land speculator. The house provides a window into a wide variety of 18th-century home construction methods. It is now maintained 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 ...
, and is open seasonally between May and October. 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 1975.
Description and history
The Hatheway House is located in the village center of Suffield, on the west side of South Main Street, south of its junction with Bridge Street. It is a sprawling multi-section wood-frame structure, with a -story five-bay central block flanked on the north by a -story three-bay section and on the left by a -story ell. Each section is covered by gambrel roof and is sheathed in wooden clapboards. The center block, built in 1762, has a large central chimney, and its interior is finished with high-quality Georgian woodwork. The southern ell is an older structure with simple finishes, and may date as far back as 1732. The northern addition was added in 1795. The main entrance is at the center of the main block, sheltered by a Doric portico designed by Asher Benjamin and added in 1795. Outbuildings on the property include a carriage house and barn, both 19th-century structures.
The main block of the house was built about 1762, probably by Abraham Burbank, and was originally more plainly decorated with a gable roof. Burbank's son Shem sold the house to Oliver Phelps in 1788. Phelps, then already a man of some wealth and sophistication, transformed the house into the mansion it is now. Phelps was a principal in the
Phelps and Gorham Purchase of six million acres of land in upstate
New York
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* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
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, making him one of the nation's largest landowners. Phelps lived here until 1802, when he moved to
Canandaigua, New York, to more closely oversee the development and sale of his holdings.
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See also
* National Register of Historic Places listings in Hartford County, Connecticut
References
External links
Phelps-Hatheway House web site
{{National Register of Historic Places
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut
National Register of Historic Places in Hartford County, Connecticut
Georgian architecture in Connecticut
Houses completed in 1762
Houses in Hartford County, Connecticut
Historic house museums in Connecticut
Suffield, Connecticut
Connecticut Landmarks
Museums in Hartford County, Connecticut
Historic district contributing properties in Connecticut