The Samuel Eliot House is a historic house at 500 Main Street in
Old Saybrook, Connecticut
Old Saybrook is a town in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 10,481 at the 2020 census. It contains the incorporated borough of Fenwick, as well as the census-designated places of Old Saybrook Center and Saybroo ...
. Probably built in 1737, it is a well-preserved example of Georgian residential architecture, and one of Old Saybrook's older buildings. 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 ...
in 1972.
Description and history
The Samuel Eliot House is located in a residential area south of the town center of Old Saybrook, on the narrow section of the Saybrook Point Peninsula, an east-facing projection into the
Connecticut River that was the site of the initial settlement of the
Saybrook Colony
The Saybrook Colony was an English colony established in late 1635 at the mouth of the Connecticut River in present-day Old Saybrook, Connecticut by John Winthrop, the Younger, son of John Winthrop, the Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. ...
. It is a -story wood-frame structure, five bays wide, with a side-gable roof and two interior chimneys. Its main entrance is centered on the south facade, with a projecting portico supported by square posts. The interior has retained much of its original woodwork, include wide floorboards on the second floor, fine carved fireplace surrounds on the ground floor, and the carved elements of the main staircase and hall.
The house's construction date is traditionally said to be 1737, when Samuel Eliot (son of Yale founding trustee
Jared Eliot) was married. Eliot, a physician, never actually lived in the house, due to ill health and an early death. The house was owned for many years by the Stowe and Newell families (related by marriage), who acquired the house in 1753. Some of its features, notably its interior Federal period features and an unusual fireplace frame credited to the Pennsylvanian
Isaac Potts, date to their period of ownership.
[ and ]
See also
*
References
{{National Register of Historic Places
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut
Houses in Old Saybrook, Connecticut
Houses completed in 1737
National Register of Historic Places in Middlesex County, Connecticut