The Richard Alsop IV House is a historic house at 301 High Street in

Middletown, Connecticut Middletown is a city in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. Located along the Connecticut River, in the central part of the state, 16 miles (25.749504 km) south of Hartford, Connecticut, Hartford. Middletown is the largest city in the L ...

. Completed in 1839, the house is a distinctive example of transitional

Greek Revival Greek Revival architecture is a architectural style, style that began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe, the United States, and Canada, ...

and

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century It ...

architecture, and is nationally significant for the extremely well-preserved drawings on its interior walls. The site was designated a U.S.

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...

on January 16, 2009. The house served as the Davison Art Center of

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the Methodi ...

until 2019. The Davison Art Collection (formerly the Davison Art Center) is now located in Olin Memorial Library.

Relationship to its surroundings

This stately mansion faces east toward the

Connecticut River The Connecticut River is the longest river in the New England region of the United States, flowing roughly southward for through four states. It rises 300 yards (270 m) south of the U.S. border with Quebec, Canada, and discharges into Long Isl ...

from the west side of High Street opposite the intersection of Court Street. It is set back from the street atop a rise. A high iron fence borders the property along High Street. This house makes an important contribution to the elegance and high style which characterized High Street as the preferred residential area in nineteenth-century Middletown.

Significance

The Alsop house was built in 1838–1839 by Richard Alsop IV for his twice-widowed mother, Mrs. Maria (Alsop) Dana. The short-lived architectural firm formed by Landra Beach Platt and Francis Benne, who worked together in New Haven under the tutelage of Sidney Mason Stone, is believed responsible for the design. They may have been inspired by

Ithiel Town Ithiel Town (October 3, 1784 – June 13, 1844) was an American architect and civil engineer. One of the first generation of professional architects in the United States, Town made significant contributions to American architecture in the f ...

's own house in

New Haven New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is the third largest city in Co ...

. There are similarities between the two structures and Town was formerly credited with design of the Alsop House. (Stone's possible contributions have yet to be explored.) The well-known Middletown builders, Barzillai Sage and Isaac W. Baldwin, performed the masonry and carpentry work, respectively. The house remained in the hands of Alsop family until it was acquired in 1948 by

. This house is significant architecturally for its transitional Greek-Tuscan Italianate appearance. The cubical, two-story, central block with overhanging eaves is flanked by colonnaded -story wings. A swag-and-tassel design decorates the frieze of the central block, which also displays a veranda supported by delicate ironwork and surmounted by an intricate balustrade. A rear colonnaded wing, which originally housed servant's quarters and service facility, has been enclosed. At the west end of this wing are attached an art gallery of recent construction and the art library, originally the stable. The interior of the Alsop house is noted for its decorative wall paintings. The stair hall displays ''

trompe-l'œil ; ; ) is an artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a Two-dimensional space, two-dimensional surface. , which is most often associated with painting, tricks the viewer into perceiving p ...

'' painting of figures in niches, while the parlors, dining room and morning-room feature oil-on-plaster paintings. The parlor paintings are classically derived and some subjects are Raphaelesque in origin. In the morning room, the formal classicism of the parlors is replaced by scenes derived from the "rural" Italian tradition of wall decoration. Local birds and insects are featured in these scenes. The dining room displays a painted frieze. The paintings are believed to have been executed by German or Italian immigrant artisans. Possible contributors include the noted Italian artist Nicola Monachesi. According to family documentation, the paintings were executed between 1839 and 1860. The main rooms of the house are furnished with period antiques and provide a suitable atmosphere in which to display the wall painting. In its carefully restored condition, the Alsop house remains a monument to the skill of its designers, while serving

and the community as the Digital Design Commons.

References

;Notes *Middletown, Connecticut Historical and Architectural Resources. Volume III, Card Number 131. John Reynolds. September, 1978.

External links

*
Wesleyan house named historic landmark
AP/WTNH news article 17 Jan 2009 {{DEFAULTSORT:Richard Alsop 4 House National Historic Landmarks in Connecticut Houses in Middletown, Connecticut Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut Historic American Buildings Survey in Connecticut National Register of Historic Places in Middlesex County, Connecticut Wesleyan University Alsop family

Relationship to its surroundings

Significance

See also

References

External links