Rescued Structures
Benjamin Hart House (Madison, CT) - January 2002
Mike Hart and crew spent the past several weeks
dismantling, documenting and shipping to Montgomery County, PA
the Benjamin Hart House located in Madison, CT. Mike discovered
this historic home in need of rescue in an issue of Living
with Antiques magazine. After reading the article,
Mike and his wife made a special trip to Connecticut in October
to inspect the home. Needless to say, Mike fell in love with
the structure and made arrangements to save it from the wrecking
ball. The Foundation plans to keep this home for its future architectural
preserve. Stay tuned for more details.
 
PLEASE NOTE:
The Benjamin Hart House NEEDS YOUR HELP.
The Foundation is looking for a "spare parts house"
in order to properly restore this historic home. We are in need
of similar period/style windows, doors, staircase, etc.
Please contact The Foundation if you can help.
Background Information:
Benjamin Hart was born in 1725 and died in 1804. He was the son
of Mary Hooker Hart and John Hart, first minister of the First
Congregational Church of Madison (then East Guilford) and first
graduate of Yale College in 1703 (then located in Old Saybrook).
After his father's death in 1734, the East Guilford property
was transferred to Benjamin. Benjamin expanded the original 11
acres by adding land on the south side of Boston Post Road in
1769 and several other purchases beginning in 1774 expanding
the total property significantly for his heirs. As the son of
a minister and a large landowner, Benjamin was a respected member
of this community and was elected deacon of the Congressional
Church in 1781.
Benjamin had 5 children - Benjamin II, Samuel, James, Sarah and
Mabel. The house was inherited by his son, Benjamin II, who by
1841 had inherited all of his father's land. Benjamin Hart II,
also a deacon in the Congregational Church, died in 1852 leaving
the homestead to his younger son, William Winthrop Hart. Since
William was a minor at the time of Benjamin's death, he lived
in the house with his mother, widow Lucy Baldwin Hart.
Upon Lucy's death in 1861, the estate was divided between her
two sons, Baldwin and William. William and his wife, Roxanna
Scranton, continued to live on the estate until May 1867 when
they sold it to Roxanna's father, Sereno H. Scranton. William
and Roxanna moved to Philadelphia, PA, thereby ending ownership
by the Hart family.
Sereno Scranton developed much of the property, but never lived
in the Hart House. In April 1868, he sold the house with one
acre to Henry B. Wilcox. Wilcox lived there for over 25 years.
In 1902, his son, Dwight W. Wilcox sold the property to J. Myron
Hull. In 1904, Henry J. Coe purchased the property, he owned
several other properties in Madison, but he probably never lived
there. However, he is most likely the owner who built the addition
and turned the property into a two-family rental property. In
1923, his estate sold to Robert E. Denison. The Denisons and
later their descendants, the Bentons, owned the property until
it was sold to the Madison Country Club in March 2000.
Architectural Description:
The Benjamin Hart house c. 1788 was built on Boston Post Road
in Madison, Connecticut. The house is a 2 1/2 story, plank frame
structure known as "New England Large" was constructed
almost entirely of oak with a small amount of chestnut, with
5 rooms on each floor and a large attic. The exterior of the
home is clapboarded with overhangs with cyma recta moldings at
the first and second story. The house has a standard gabled roof
and 4" overhangs between the first and second floor and
between the second floor and attic. The main house measures 38'
5" x 28' 8" with approximately 2100 square feet of
living space. A two-story addition, built at the end of the 19th
century/early 20th century, provided an additional 700 square
feet of living space. The house was converted to two family use
when the addition was built. The original central, stone chimney
stack was removed and replaced with a small brick stack between
1902 and 1920. When the original chimney was removed, a center
hall, with stairs on the left side, replaced the front stairs
and chimney. The large cooking firebox was removed as well. The
original back stairs and doorway to the cellar stairs were removed
and a new set of stairs built in the east front room for the
east side of the house. The cellar stairs are in the original
location but are now accessed by a trap door. The remaining original
trim is like that found in Guilford houses built between 1770
and 1780.
The front rooms on both the first and second floor have cased
summer beams running from the chimney to the outside wall. Posts
project into these rooms and are cased. The west front room has
crown molding where ceiling and wall meet. The 6 over 6 windows
are replacements with thin muntins. The original window sills
were left when the new windows were installed. The first floor
sills need to be replaced. The first floor east rear room and
second floor east rear room have cased posts and the original
room configuration. The roof is framed with queen's post system
and common rafters.
Special thanks to our friend, Sandra Rux, for
providing The Foundation with much of the background and architectural
information.
Dismantling the Hart House . . .
 
 
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