Located on Harbor Road in Southport, CT, this stunning Italianate residence is properly sited on a small bluff overlooking the village’s harbor. According to historic maps, the house was owned by an “I. Chidsey” who appears to be Isaac Chidsey (1793-1865). The large Italianate style home is boxy in form and stands three full stories with two original one-story side wings. Sleeping porches were added in the early 20th century; those along with the rooftop belvedere, would allow for sweeping views of ships entering and exiting the harbor here. The house was recently restored by the architectural firm of Fairfax & Sammons and it looks amazing!
Inspired by suggestions from books by Andrew Jackson Downing, the Gen. George Stark House is one of the finest dwellings in the Italian villa style in New Hampshire. Located on a triangular plot just north of Downtown Nashua, the house was built in 1856 by a man who, though then only in his early thirties, was one of New Hampshire’s most experienced civil engineers and surveyors, and was the superintendent of the Nashua and Lowell Railroad. General George W. Stark (1823-1892) was born in Manchester, N.H., and as a young man worked on surveys of the canals and factories being built in the late 1830s in his native city. In 1836, during the first days of railroading in northern New England, Stark was employed with the engineers who laid out the route of the Nashua and Lowell Railroad. He climbed the ladder, eventually working as treasurer and assistant superintendent of theHudson River Railroad, subsequently rising to the position of superintendent. He later became superintendent of the Nashua and Lowell Railroad, whose route he had helped to plan, and in 1857, at about the time he saw the completion of his Italianate villa, he became managing agent of the Boston and Lowell line. In the same year, he was commissioned Brigadier General of the Third Brigade of New Hampshire Militia, giving him his title, General. The Stark House was occupied by General Stark and by members of his family until the property was acquired by The First Church of Christ, Scientist, about 1928. Today, it houses offices but retains a distinct residential character regardless.
This mansion, one of the finest in Providence, was built in the late 1870s by George H. Corliss for his second wife. Corliss (1817-1888) was the inventor of the most widely used industrial steam engine of the nineteenth century. Corliss’ first wife Phebe died in 1859. Seeking companionship, George remarried in 1866 to Emily Shaw who was eighteen years younger than he. Ms. Shaw suffered from poor health and she with the assistance of her doctor, convinced Mr. Corliss that she escape the cold winters of Rhode Island for Bermuda. It does not appear that they relocated to Bermuda, but Corliss stated, “I will build Bermuda for Mrs. Corliss.” He did, and this is it. Corliss used his engineering skills to build a state-of-the-art, climate-controlled building, cool in the summer, warm in the winter. The Italianate Villa is one of the largest in town but employed a style that was dated upon completion. In 1929, Corliss’s great-nephew, screen-writer and movie producer for Paramount Studios Charles Brackett inherited the house. He in turn eventually transferred the house over to Brown in 1955, who have maintained the old mansion to this day!
Another Italianate mansion on Angell Street in Providence is the Samuel B. Wheaton House which is presently occupied by Brown University’s English Department. Samuel Burr Wheaton (1807-1863) was a merchant who also served as president of the Phenix Bank. The building is capped by a shallow hip roof which is not visible from the street and wide, overhanging eaves supported by brackets. The house is a Villa in plan as it features irregular massing and not a symmetrical form, just sans tower. The Wheaton House was acquired by Brown University who has since added onto the rear of the house for the English Department offices and classroom spaces. LLB Architects is credited with the contextually designed additions which utilizes lead-coated-copper clad connectors that are recessed between sensitively-scaled brick pavilions that preserve the integrity of the original house by letting it stand proud of the later additions.
Buildings of New England 