Ashbel Woodward House
Description and history
The Ashbel Woodward House is located southeast of the village center of Franklin, on the east side of Connecticut Route 32. It is a 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame structure, five bays wide, with a side-gable roof, clapboard siding, a granite foundation, and a pair of brick chimneys. The main entrance is centered on the front, slightly recessed under a Greek Revival surround with pilasters and entablature. The building corners are also pilastered, and the side gable ends have semi-elliptical windows. An ell, apparently original as it shares the foundation with the house, extends to the rear. The property also includes two barns and a third outbuilding that probably functioned as a corn crib. The interior contains exhibits on local history and an art gallery.
The house was built about 1835, on land purchased by Doctor Ashbel Woodward, a prominent local physician, in 1834. Woodward, a graduate of Bowdoin College, settled in Franklin in 1829, and served as the town's primary medical practitioner until his death in 1885. He was also interested in local history, amassing a collection of historic and prehistoric artifacts, and writing a book-length history of Franklin which was published in 1869. The property was given to the town by his descendants in 1947.
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Rear view
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Dr. Ashbel Woodward
See also
References
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
- ^ "NRHP nomination for Ashbel Woodward House". National Park Service. Retrieved 2015-02-04.
External links
Media related to Ashbel Woodward House at Wikimedia Commons