Russell, Samuel Wadsworth, House - Middletown CT
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nomadwillie
N 41° 33.617 W 072° 39.348
18T E 695478 N 4603610
Samuel Wadsworth Russell House in Middletown, Connecticut is a landmark greek revival mansion built in 1828.
Waymark Code: WM8ZFK
Location: Connecticut, United States
Date Posted: 06/05/2010
Views: 3
Samuel Wadsworth Russell House in Middletown, Connecticut is a landmark greek revival mansion built in 1828. It is now owned by Wesleyan University. In 1970, the Russell House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and it was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2001.
This building was erected in 1828 for Samuel Russell (1789–1862). Russell founded the trading firm of Russell & Company in Canton, China after serving there as trading representative of the Providence, Rhode Island firm of Edward Carrington & Company. Between 1818 and 1831 Russell's fortune was made in the illegal yet highly profitable importation of Turkish and Bengal opium into the port of Canton and the exportation of fine teas and silks from there to Europe and the United States. In 1828 when his house was built Russell was in Canton, and his friend Samuel D. Hubbard worked with Mrs. Russell to supervise the building of the house. In 1831 Russell returned to Middletown and his new home where he resided until his death in 1862.
The Russell House was designed by Ithiel Town, one of the period's foremost architects and major proponent of the Greek Revival style in America. David Hoadley (of Curtis and Hoadley), a prominent New Haven builder-architect, superintended the construction. The house has the form of a Greek temple with six full height Corinthian columns supporting a heavy entablature and low flushboarded pediment. The front (west) wall has five bays with recessed panels between the first and second story windows except in the center bay, where pilasters support a high entablature over the double entrance door. This doorway is surrounded by side and overlights whose frames are decorated with fretwork. The windows on the two-bay side facades are separated vertically by panels like those on the front. Stucco scribed to resemble large block ashlar covers the brick masonry walls. The house has a brownstone foundation supported by load bearing masonry walls and a gable roof.
After remaining in the Russell family for five generations, the house was deeded to Wesleyan in 1937 by Thomas Macdonough Russell, Jr. It was known as Honors College until 1996. The building is currently being used as an events facility and home to the University's Philosophy department.
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