Hill--Stead - Farmington, CT - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

Hill-Stead was created on 250 acres (1.0 km2) as a country estate for wealthy industrialist Alfred Atmore Pope, to the designs of his daughter Theodate Pope Riddle. Edgerton Swartout of the renowned architectural firm McKim, Mead, and White translated her design into a working site plan, and construction took place over the period of 1898 to 1901. Theodate inherited the house after her parents deaths, and prior to her own passing in 1946 willed Hill-Stead Museum as a memorial to her parents and "for the benefit and enjoyment of the public." She directed that both the house and its contents remain intact, not to be moved, lent, or sold.

Currently Hill-Stead comprises 152 acres (0.6 km2), the balance having been sold off during the first years of the museum's operation. Buildings which remain part of the property include the Pope-Riddle House itself (a large 33,000-square-foot (3,100 m2) mansion built in the Colonial Revival style and once described as "a great new house on a hilltop" by novelist and occasional guest Henry James); an 18th-century farm house; a carriage garage with an Arts and Crafts theater; a barn and additional farm buildings.

Today, 19 rooms of the house are open to visitors. Remaining as it was at the time of Theodate's death, the house is extensively furnished with paintings, prints, objets d'art, and fine furniture and rugs. Highlights of the collection include major paintings by Eugène Carrière, Mary Cassatt, Edgar Degas, Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, and James McNeill Whistler; prints including three engravings by Albrecht Dürer (Melencolia I, 1514), 17 copper plate etchings and lithographs by James McNeill Whistler, and Japanese woodblock prints by artists Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Hiroshige and Kitagawa Utamaro; eight bronze sculptures by Antoine-Louis Barye; about 13,000 letters and postcards including correspondence from Mary Cassatt, Henry James, and James McNeill Whistler; and about 2,500 photographs, including six of Gertrude Käsebier's art photographs.

Hill-Stead's grounds were originally designed in consultation with landscape architect Warren H. Manning and feature a broad lawn with ha-ha and slate walkway; artificial pond; and formal, octagonal flower garden. Around 1920 landscape gardener Beatrix Farrand redesigned the estate's Sunken Garden (1 acre) at Theodate's request. Due to the wartime labor shortage experienced during the 1940s, the garden grassed over leaving only the summerhouse in place. Though it was replanted in time, it was not until the 1980s that the Sunken Garden was restored to exhibit Farrand's original plan.

Hill-Stead was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1991.

Street address: 35 Mountain Rd Farmington , CT County / Borough / Parish: Hartford Year listed: 1991 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Architecture/Engineering Periods of significance: 1875-1899, 1900-1924, 1925-1949 Historic function: Domestic Current function: Recreation And Culture Privately owned?: yes Season start / Season finish: From: 01/01/2009 To: 12/31/2009 Hours of operation: From: 9:00 AM To: 5:00 PM Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Secondary Website 1: [Web Link] Secondary Website 2: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

Visit Instructions:
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Date Logged Log User Rating   09/02/2009 KDubs visited it 07/11/2009 Mr Echo visited it 05/31/2009 nomadwillie visited it

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