The Day-Taylor Dwelling was constructed in 1857 in a wonderful Italian Villa style architecture at the exact same time that Samuel Colt, the creator of the Colt Revolver constructed his Armsmear estate straight throughout the road. Found at the center of the Colt Architectural legacy at 81 Wethersfield Avenue, it has been a residence of various prominent Hartford, Connecticut households.
The Working day-Taylor Household was developed by Hirim Billel, the remarkably esteemed Hartford builder who also developed Connecticut’s Point out Capitol and the Memorial Arch in Bushnell Park. It was motivated by the suggestions of Andrew Jackson Downing who wrote treatises on landscape design and style and architecture that have been widely well-liked at the time. It is an instance of a fashion that Downing identified as “Italianate” primarily based on Italian farmhouses that ended up also currently being depicted in preferred landscape paintings of the period of time.
The 3 story purple brick masonry and white trimmed building has an asymmetrical facade dominated by flooring-to-ceiling arched home windows at each individual degree, balconies, forged-iron lintels and a flat-roofed cupola. The brackets lining the low-pitched roof and cupola are especially detailed and ornate. The three-portion veranda of the front facade is supported by elaborate Corinthian columns. The entrance facade has remained unchanged given that its unique development.
The 1st operator and resident was Albert F. Working day, a descendant of Robert Working day who was one of the first colonial settlers of Hartford. The property was later on occupied by his father, a Connecticut Attorney Common. Later on house owners incorporated Mary Borden Munsill of the Borden Milk business and Edwin Taylor. In 1928 the house was purchased by the Fraternal Order of Eagles who made use of it as a assembly house, and headquarters. In 1974 it was acquired by the Hartford Redevelopment Agency.
The Working day-Taylor Dwelling is also major situated in Hartford’s Colt architectural legacy which stretches along each sides of Wethersfield Avenue for two blocks. The space has come to be selected as the Coltsville Historical District.
The Day-Taylor House was mentioned on the Countrywide Sign-up of Historic Areas in 1975. It had a considerable restoration in 1979 and the making now serves as workplaces. The mixture of it staying constructed by a single of Hartford’s most distinguished builders Hirim Billel, that it was designed the same yr and directly throughout the street from the Samuel Colt Residence and the Armsmear Estate Park, and that it has been owned and occupied by so many noteworthy Hartford residents can make it a person of Hartford, Connecticut’s most significant historical residences.
