Restoration Highlights: Katharine Seymour Day Architecture

This summer, the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center will begin the exterior restoration of the Chamberlin-Day House. It will be a massive undertaking as the house is exceptional.

When Franklin and Mary Porter Chamberlin moved into their grand and well-built, Queen-Anne style home in 1884, neighbors couldn’t help but compare their new house to that of their neighbors’ Sam and Olivia Clemens. But unlike the “Twain” House, where much of the ornament is painted, the ornament found on the Day House is structural and pervasive.

The textural variety found on the Chamberlin-Day House is outstanding. Consider the rough-cut pink granite accented with molded brick accents on the first and second floors. Note the blue and beige checkered line of granite blocks that serves as a break between the second and third floors. The solid balustrade and columns found on the two first floor porches, three second floor balconies, and around select windows are uniquely turned and hand carved, many adorned with floral rosettes. Gutters are held in place with elaborate iron work.

The scalloped cedar shingles that cover much of the massive, high pitched and asymmetrical roof, as well the siding on the third floor, undulates and serves as an incredible crown to this grand home. The tallest peak on the roof is decorated with a design often referred to as the Tree of Life and may represent the connection between earth and heaven. Bulbous finials stand at the top of the roofline and draw attention to the four large chimneys.

Each of these incredible details will be maintained during this Summer’s restoration as the guiding principle for historic restoration is to repair original building materials and, if anything needs replacing, it must be replaced with the same type of building materials that were used originally. The work begins soon!

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Authored by:

Cindy Cormier, Consulting Project Manager

School Group Interest Form

School Group Interest Form 2024

Thank you so much for your interest in a group tour at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center! Please help us schedule your visit by answering the questions below.

School name:

Please suggest three dates and times when your group would like to visit. (Note: the Stowe Center is closed on Sunday and Tuesday.)

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The Stowe Center requires one adult per every 10 students.

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If yes, have you already contacted The Mark Twain House?

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Adult Group Interest Form

Group Tour Interest Form 2022

Thank you so much for your interest in a group tour at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center! Please help us schedule your visit by answering the questions below.

Group Name:

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Are there special accommodations that can help us serve you best?

Are you interested in a joint visit with our neighbor, The Mark Twain House and Museum?

Yes, please.

No, thank you.

If yes, have you already contacted The Mark Twain House?

Yes

Isabella Beecher Hooker

Isabella Holmes Beecher Hooker (1822-1907)
An ardent member of the woman’s suffrage movement, Isabella Holmes Beecher Hooker joined in the cause along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.

Isabella was the first child of Lyman Beecher and his second wife, Harriet Porter Beecher.

Isabella began her education at Catharine Beecher’s Hartford Female Seminary and lived with her sister Mary Perkins. In 1841 she married John Hooker, a descendant of Thomas Hooker, the founder of Hartford. John Hooker was a lawyer and an abolitionist.

In the early 1860s Isabella got involved in the woman’s suffrage movement. Isabella joined Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony as a member of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association in 1869. She was a founding member of the Connecticut Woman’s Suffrage Association. Isabella’s ideas of equality were influenced by John Stuart Mills’ On Liberty and the Subjection of Women.

In 1871, Isabella organized the annual convention of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association in Washington D.C. and presented her argument before the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate. Her husband, John Hooker, believed in his wife and supported her activities. He helped Isabella draft a bill to the Connecticut Legislature giving married women the same property rights as their husbands. The bill passed in 1877. Isabella annually submitted a bill granting women the right to vote, but it did not pass in her lifetime.