Josiah Bronson House
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Josiah Bronson House | |
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| Location | Breakneck Hill Road, Middlebury, Connecticut |
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| Coordinates | 41°32′51″N 73°7′29″W / 41.54750°N 73.12472°W / 41.54750; -73.12472 |
| Area | 3 acres (1.2 ha) |
| Built | c. 1738 (1738) |
| Architectural style | Georgian |
| NRHP reference No. | 82004356[1] |
| Added to NRHP | February 25, 1982 |
The Josiah Bronson House is a historic house on Breakneck Hill Road in Middlebury, Connecticut, built in about 1738. It is Middlebury's oldest surviving house, and one of the town's few surviving 18th-century houses, acting as a good example of residential architecture from that period. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.[1]
The Josiah Bronson House is located northeast of the village center of Middlebury in a rural-suburban setting on the north side of Breakneck Hill Road. It is a 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame structure with a gabled roof, central chimney, and clapboarded exterior. Its main façade is five bays wide with a symmetrical arrangement of windows around its main entrance. The entrance is unusually wide, with flanking sidelight windows; it was at one time sheltered by a wide portico. The house is only one room deep, suggesting that it was originally built with a lean-to section in the rear. Some time in the 19th century, the lean-to was probably removed and replaced by the present two-story kitchen. The interior retains a significant amount of original woodwork, as altered about 1800 to add some Federal details. To the rear of the house there are two barns of 19th-century or earlier construction.[2]
The house was probably built about 1738 by Josiah Bronson, whose family was among the first to settle the Breakneck Hill area.[2] The French Army commanded by the Marquis de Lafayette[3] is known to have camped in the area during the American Revolutionary War in 1781 and 1782.[2]
See also
References
- 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
- 1 2 3 "NRHP nomination for Josiah Bronson House". National Park Service. Retrieved July 8, 2018.
- ↑ "History of ancient Woodbury, Connecticut, from the first Indian deed in 1659 to 1854 ... including the present towns of Washington, Southbury, Bethlem, Roxbury, and a part of Oxford and Middlebury". quod.lib.umich.edu. Retrieved January 15, 2016.
