New Listings on the National Register

High Style, 1790s and 1950s

National Register listings for two of Connecticut’s great houses illustrate high-style design of the 1790s and the 1950s.

The Hatheway house, in Suffield, was already listed on the Register, but an amended nomination provides additional information about the addition built in 1794 and 1795, demonstrating that the house, now a museum owned by Connecticut Landmarks, is of national significance.

Constructed by master builder Thomas Hayden, of Windsor, the addition features the first known work of Asher Benjamin (1773-1845), who went on to become a successful architect and, more important, a one of the most influential architectural authors of the early republic. Beginning with The Country Builder’s Assistant in 1797, Benjamin’s seven pattern books went through dozens of editions, spreading first Federal and then Greek Revival design through the country.

The addition also contains a remarkable set of original 18^th-century wallpapers. Intact rooms of original wallpaper preserved in place are extremely rare, so the survival of the wall paper in three rooms, plus the stair hall, at the Hatheway house is extraordinary (in the mid-20^th century wallpaper and trim from a fifth room was removed to the Winterthur Museum in Delaware; reproductions take their place).

The papers, manufactured by Réveillon, one of the foremost French wallpaper designers of the late 18^th century, offer a rare glimpse into the taste of the time. Bruce Clouette writes in the nomination, “The Hatheway house demonstrates as few others can the architectural effect of wallpapered walls. The rooms are much more visually arresting than those with plain painted walls; the eye can hardly stay still investigating the plethora of intricate designs. At the same time, the papers do not diminish the impact of the rooms’ fine woodwork. But the woodwork and wallpaper would not be considered as separate, independent elements. They complement each other; together they show that the house’s owner sought to display a high level of taste, and neither would be as impressive without the other.”

            In New Canaan, the Noyes house was constructed in 1954 and 1955 by Eliot Noyes (1910-1977), one of five Harvard-trained architects who settled in the town after World War II and made it a center in the development of Modern architecture. Noyes built an international practice in architecture and industrial design. Working for such clients as IBM, Mobil, and Westinghouse, he is recognized in one encyclopedia as a “leading advocate of the integration of product, architectural, display and graphic design in one business and industry.”

            For his own house, Noyes divided residential uses into two pavilions—one containing living-dining area, kitchen, and study; the other for bedrooms and bathrooms—connected by a central courtyard.

            Heather McGrath of Building Conservation Associates writes in the nomination, “The house demonstrates Noyes’ appreciation for New England’s natural materials, particularly fieldstone walls. Though the major walls were built of local stone, the secondary and courtyard facades are primarily glass and steel, rendering the house decidedly Modern. In Noyes’ words, the house is ‘a fortress on one side and all glass on the other.’ The house was among the first to use wall-size sheets of glass to open up the living area into the outside courtyard. This allowed the house to blend with its environment and to make an unobtrusive statement from the exterior. With basic, rectilinear spaces separated by elements of function, the Noyes house is the ultimate expression of its designer’s concept of what an ideal house should be.

“Noyes wrote in Life magazine in 1963, ‘It is no coincidence that an architect often expresses himself most clearly in a house designed for himself and his family. As an architect, he will have thought a lot about how people could live as opposed to how they do and how by architectural means he could expand the scope and richness of live within the house.’ As the house built expressly for Eliot Noyes’ own family, the Noyes house stands as the perfect encapsulation of the architect’s structural and aesthetic ideal.”