The Henry Champion House is a historic house on Westchester Road in

Colchester, Connecticut Colchester is a New England town, town in New London County, Connecticut, New London County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 15,555 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. In 2010 Colchester became the first town in Connecti ...

. Built in 1790, it is a good local example of Federal period architecture, designed by William Sprat, a prominent early architect. It was built by Colonel Henry Champion, a veteran of the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

for his son, also named Henry. 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 1972.

Description and history

The Henry Champion House is located on the southern fringe of the village of

Westchester Westchester most commonly refers to Westchester County, New York, immediately north of New York City. __NOTOC__ It may also refer to: Geography Canada *Westchester Station, Nova Scotia, Canada United States *Town of Westchester, the original seat ...

in southwestern Colchester, on the west side of Westchester Road at its junction with Pickerel Lake Road. It is a -story gambrel-roofed wood-frame structure, with a gambrel roof and clapboarded exterior. Two brick chimneys are symmetrically placed in the interior, rising behind the main roof ridge. Three gabled dormers project from the steep sloping front face of the roof, and the rear roof line slopes down to the first floor in a

saltbox A saltbox house is a gable-roofed residential structure that is typically two stories in the front and one in the rear. It is a traditional New England style of home, originally timber framed, which takes its name from its resemblance to a woode ...

-like profile. The main facade is five bays wide, with a center entrance flanked by sidelight windows and pilasters and sheltered by a gabled portico. First-floor windows are topped by projecting cornices, and the main roof cornice has a line of dentil moulding. The house was built in 1790 to a design by William Sprat, a Connecticut designer whose residential credits include houses in both Connecticut and

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

. The house was built by Colonel Henry Champion for his son, also named Henry. Both Champions played an active role in the

, and the younger Champion was a prominent local politician, serving in the state legislature. and He was also a major figure in the

Connecticut Land Company The Connecticut Company or Connecticut Land Company (e.-1795) was a post-colonial land speculation company formed in the late eighteenth century to survey and encourage settlement in the eastern parts of the newly chartered Connecticut Western Re ...

, which undertook the settlement of parts of

Upstate New York Upstate New York is a geographic region consisting of the area of New York State that lies north and northwest of the New York City metropolitan area. Although the precise boundary is debated, Upstate New York excludes New York City and Long Is ...

and

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

References

External links

* {{National Register of Historic Places Houses completed in 1790 Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut Historic American Buildings Survey in Connecticut Houses in New London County, Connecticut Georgian architecture in Connecticut Federal architecture in Connecticut Colchester, Connecticut National Register of Historic Places in New London County, Connecticut

Description and history

See also

References

External links