The Saga of the empty houses continues with another large , beautiful house set aside as a museum years ago and managed by the nonprofit organization called Connecticut Landmarks. Their slogan is ‘History Moving Forward’ and my slogan is ‘An Unused Old House Going Wasted”. As far as I know there have been no visitors to this house for at least ten years and this house stands very near where I live. I see it constantly and shake my head at the situation. Viewing the website photos of the interior of the house, I see very little in the house of historic value. The only object that is unknown to me in the house is a strange metal bin in the fireplace area. All other things in the house are of no particular significance to anybody wanting to view history. I have all of these same things in my house, built in 1880. I have a hearth with the woodstoves and the hearth tools. I have a cupboard with tea cups displayed. I have beds and furniture of an antique variety. I don’t like to be mean to a house or people, living or dead, who thought that this museum house was a great idea, but the whole thing is a bust, my friends. Unused, unloved and just a few nice photos pretending something or other. Nobody is touring the house and learning or enjoying anything. Below is the listing for the company about the house:
The Amasa Day House, a rural Federal house showcases how the Industrial Revolution changed the daily life of American families. Located on the Moodus Green, it was constructed in 1816 for farmer, Colonel Julius Chapman, his wife Frances, and their four daughters. Amasa Day purchased the property after Chapman’s death, but later sold off parcels of land as he focused on his roles as insurance agent and banker. Day’s daughter and son-in-law Katherine and Eugene Chaffee inherited the house; Chaffee worked at the nearby New York Net and Twine Company, one of 12 twine factories then located in Moodus. The Chafees redecorated and added an addition.
The house is furnished largely with objects owned by members of the Day family, including toys and locally produced ceramics and silver, and features the original 19th-century floor and stair stenciling applied to mimic carpeting. Also on display are a selection of photographs from among the thousands taken by pioneering art photographer Dr. Amasa Day Chaffee between 1890 and 1925. The house provides evidence of both the lives and lifestyles of the families who occupied the Amasa Day House between 1816 and 1967 and the periods of enormous change in American work and culture that they lived through. Their lives in the house span the American transformation from a traditional to a modern society that is familiar to us today.
The only people who got things right, in my humble(or otherwise) opinion, was the soldier and farmer who built the house in 1816. With four daughters and farming happening, there must have been so much life going on. Even with the reduced acreage now that goes with the house, there is probably enough space to feed a small family with gardens and chickens. It is a very nice spot in town for a family to live. It will be again a nice place for a family again someday because this waste cannot go on forever. Notice in the photo center that part of the facia board has fallen off. In a few weeks it will be repaired by the company perhaps and then the house will continue to be lonely. As with every entity these days serving the public, there is a covid excuse for not doing business as usual. But there was no business happening before covid….
