The Simeon Smith House is a historic house on Main Road in

West Haven, Vermont West Haven is a town in Rutland County, Vermont, United States. The population was 239 at the 2020 census. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which is land and , or 1.72%, is water. Demog ...

. Built in 1798–1800 to a design by William Sprat (or Sprats), a prominent

housewright Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. Carpenters trad ...

from

Litchfield, Connecticut Litchfield is a town in and former county seat of Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 8,192 at the 2020 census. The town is part of the Northwest Hills Planning Region. The boroughs of Bantam and Litchfield are ...

, it is a fine example of period

Federal architecture Federal-style architecture is the name for the classical architecture built in the United States following the American Revolution between 1780 and 1830, and particularly from 1785 to 1815, which was influenced heavily by the works of And ...

. It was built for Simeon Smith, a wealthy businessman who moved here from Connecticut. The house was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1983.

Description and history

The Simeon Smith House stands in a rural area of far eastern West Haven, on the north side of Main Road, a short way west of its junction with

Vermont Route 22A Vermont Route 22A (VT 22A) is a state highway in western Vermont, United States. It is the northward continuation of New York State Route 22A. Its southern end is at the New York state line in Fair Haven and its northern end is ...

, the principal north–south route in the area. The house is a -story

I-house The I-house is a vernacular architecture, vernacular house type, popular in the United States from the colonial period onward. The I-house was so named in the 1930s by Fred Kniffen, a cultural geographer at Louisiana State University who was a sp ...

, built of wood, with a

gable roof A gable roof is a roof consisting of two sections whose upper horizontal edges meet to form its ridge. The most common roof shape in cold or temperate climates, it is constructed of rafters, roof trusses or purlins. The pitch of a gable roof c ...

, clapboard siding, and rubblestone foundation. The main facade faces the road to the south, and has a central entrance flanked by sidelight windows and topped by a cornice. Windows are 19th-century two-over-two sash, with flanking shutters, and the roof line has a modillioned eave. The interior follows a center hall plan on the ground floor, and has a large, elaborately decorated ballroom taking up most of the second floor. An ell extends to the left, dating to a 1920s renovation done after a fire damaged an older ell. The house was built in 1798-1800 for Simeon Smith, a wealthy businessman who had moved to the area (then part of Fair Haven) in 1787 from northwestern Connecticut. Smith's relationship with the designer William Sprat is not well understood. Sprat was active in the

area, and was apparently hired by Smith to at least draw up plans for this house; it is unclear if he actually worked on it. Smith and Sprat are buried in adjacent plots in a West Haven Cemetery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Simeon, House Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Vermont National Register of Historic Places in Rutland County, Vermont Federal architecture in Vermont Houses completed in 1798 Houses in Rutland County, Vermont Buildings and structures in West Haven, Vermont

Description and history

See also

References