Elmwood - Windsor, Connecticut
Posted by: 
BruceS
N 41° 52.720 W 072° 37.472
18T E 697110 N 4639033
Historic former home of framer of the United States Constitution and early Chief Justice also known as the Oliver Ellsworth Homestead located north of Windsor, Connecticut.
Waymark Code: WMC13R
Location: Connecticut, United States
Date Posted: 07/12/2011
Views: 3
Elmwood, 778 Palisado Ave., the home of Oliver Elsworth, minister to France and third Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. In the front yard is a wooden stump which is all that remains of the famous 'Old Hunting Tree' beneath which Indian chiefs held their councils. Two of the 13 elms planted by the great jurist to commemorate the adoption of the Federal Constitution stand near the road. The house is now owned by the Daughters of the American Revolution.
The house itself is interesting as one of the earliest in Connecticut to have two chimneys and a central hall. It had so long been the practice to cramp the stairway of a house into a narrow space that despite the central hall, the stairs in this house were not even visible, but were hidden away behind a partition. Builders did not immediately discover how effective a feature the stair could be made. The colonnaded addition to the plain country farmhouse was added when Ellsworth returned to his native village from the courts of Europe. The woodwork of the spacious, lofty drawing room is mahogany-grained. Yet with all the splendor of this elaborately paneled room, it is worthy of note that the old Chief Justice slept in a room unheated by any fireplace. His room had wallpaper imported from France in 1802. - Connecticut: A Guide to Its Roads, Lore, and People, Windsor section, pgs. 325-326
The house was restored in the 1980s and 90s and is now operated as a museum. It is listed as a National Historic Landmark. The stump and the elms mentioned in the Guide no longer exist. The house is in very good condition and the museum has many interesting exhibits.