Step inside the museum to be transported to the 18th and 19th centuries and learn about the lives of those who built, lived in, and preserved the house. Stop into the visitor’s center for the Pastel Paintings exhibition by artist Gina Trusiewicz. With a longtime interest in art, Trusiewicz developed her craft in an online class during the pandemic. Her interest in nature, animals, and plants, combined with her certification as a Master Gardener, has inspired her work–capturing everyday moments, and the feelings they evoke, in West Hartford or right from her own backyard.
Suffield native Shem Burbank built a center chimney structure in 1761 where he and his wife Anna Fitch Burbank raised nine children. Although well-appointed for the mid 18th century, the Burbank house reflected conservative trends in design popular for the period. Financial hardship forced Burbank to sell his house to Oliver Phelps in 1788. The youngest of 17 children from neighboring Windsor, CT, Oliver Phelps was apprenticed to a Suffield merchant at an early age. During the Revolution, he skillfully served as Deputy Commissary under George Washington. A budding land speculator after the War, Phelps commissioned the addition of a substantial wing decorated with imported Parisian wallpaper in 1794. From the stylish new rooms, Phelps peddled a vision of American expansion to New Englanders looking for a new life in the west. Phelps’ attempts to sell significant swaths of Seneca Nation land as part of Connecticut’s Western Reserve proved unsuccessful; within a decade, his fortunes had collapsed. Understand the role of Connecticut in the American Revolution, examine colonial era trade and commercial exchange, consider land and real estate speculation and Indigenous people’s land rights, and observe the ways we display wealth and status in our homes.
Advance registration for tours appreciated, but walk-ups welcome as space permits! House tours leave on the hour; last tour departs at 3 pm.
If you have any questions, please email phelps.hatheway@ctlandmarks.org or call 860-668-0055.
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