Date: Fri 07-Feb-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: LAURAB

Illustration: C

Location: A9

Quick Words:

Governor-Residence-Rowland

Full Text:

(feature on CT Governor's Residence in Hartford, 2/7/97)

The Governor's Residence... Then, And Now?

(with photos)

BY LAURA BEACH

HARTFORD - As anyone who holds public office could privately tell you,

politics has its pros and cons, not least in its domestic arrangements. High

among housekeeping hazards is the governor's official residence. Not all

states have them, and not all governors choose to live in them.

Beyond the obvious enticement of free room and board, what should the first

family really expect from accommodations that are more transient than student

housing and more social than a frat house, vulnerable to political vagaries

and prone to budgetary asceticism?

Appearances are paramount in politics, which may explain why official

residences have had to look bad for politicians to feel good. Fortunately,

around the country regencies of concerned citizens are assuming

responsibility, doing what most politicians dare not: feather the official

nest.

Abreast of the movement is the Governor's Residence Conservancy, a private

non-profit organization established in 1991 to restore and furnish

Connecticut's first home, open both for public tours and private functions.

Modeled after the White House Foundation, the Conservancy superseded executive

orders of 1985 and 1991 mandating the residence's restoration.

Through a long-term loan program, regional museums have supplied fine art and

furnishings reflecting the history and character of the Nutmeg State, which

grew from Colonial acorn to industrial oak over the past two centuries.

Through private donation, the Conservancy is also adding to its small

permanent collection of representative objects well suited for everyday life

in one of Connecticut's busiest households.

"Interesting but non-political people from around the state were asked to

help," explains Arthur Liverant, a dealer in American furniture from

Colchester, who is among the Conservancy's directors. "One day they called me

and asked for advice on antiques."

Headed by honorary chairman Patricia L. Rowland, Connecticut's First Lady,

other Governor's Residence Conservancy directors include chairman Wilson

Wilde, an executive at the Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance

Company; designers Gabrielle Davis Barrett and John LaFalce; architect Thomas

Soyster; Theodore R. Anson; Wallace Barnes; Pamela A. Koprowski; Michael

Koslowski; Joni Lyn Malcynsky; Timothy Moynihan; Henry Nozko, Sr; and Bruce

Wilson.

"Prospect Avenue was where the movers and shakers in Hartford were building

their houses in the teens and early 1920s," reflects Connecticut Historical

Society curator Elizabeth Pratt Fox. It was there, at the corner of Asylum

Street, that a large, comfortable Georgian Revival was erected in 1909 for Dr

George C.F. Williams by architects Andrews, Jaques & Rantoul of Boston. The

builder, Robert Porteous, had recently completed The Hartford Club. Wings were

constructed on the north and south sides of the house in 1916, and a maid's

room was added in 1927.

Period photographs tell the rest of the story. Supported by columns and

embellished with other classical details, a gracious porch stretched the

length of the 19-room brick mansion, secured at each end by pairs of massive

chimneys. Dolloped with creamy white trim, the home's second and third stories

were punctuated by dormers fitted with mullioned sash windows. At the far end

of the ground floor, French doors opened onto a formal garden and reflecting

pool.

"It's rather typical for the barons of ancient Hartford," says Thomas Soyster,

the Conservancy's original chairman and the architect charged with designing

new cabinetry for the library and a poolside cabana.

"It's unconventional in that it's not as grandiose as some, though the

original estate comprised much more acreage."

Inside, the house that has been home to Connecticut's maximum leaders since

1945 has metamorphosed over the years, its oddball Colonial Revival luxe

surrendering to Neoclassical restraint as wall-to-wall carpet and Duncan

Phyfe-style reproductions replaced wallpaper, Oriental rugs and barley-twist

corner chairs.

One informal handout records the comings and goings of successive

administrations. In the beginning, there were the Baldwins, who celebrated

their arrival with an open house for 3,000. The crush was matched only by the

chaos of the decorating scheme.

"The legislature," it was reported, "had contracted the furnishings of each

room to different merchants in as many towns as possible. What was politically

expedient proved to be an aesthetic disaster..."

Thus the Baldwins petitioned Beatrice Fox Auerbach, a neighbor and owner of

the G. Fox & Co. department stores, to supply a more harmonious selection.

Then, as now, private quarters were furnished with the governor's own

belongings. When they left, the Baldwins donated their piano, a flagpole and

the remains of their dog, buried on the property.

In 1948, just as the baby boom was cranking up, Governor Chester and Mrs

Bowles arrived with their five children. Sounding a chord of unaffected

domesticity, they hosted a slumber party for 20 children from the Essex

Elementary School on inaugural night. Furnishings were not a priority.

Prominent guests - among them Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Henry Cabot

Lodge and Prescott Bush - visited the house uneventfully, but others were less

fortunate. When Governor Lowell P. Weicker, Jr's guests rose from the table

following a dinner for Hawaii's Senator Daniel Inouye one evening, the plaster

fell.

First under the O'Neills and then the Weickers, drastically needed structural

improvements were made to the house. In 1991, the state undertook plumbing and

electrical repairs. The following year, with a grant from UST Corporation,

First Lady Claudia Weicker marshalled the resounding overhaul of a kitchen

still current by Depression era standards.

"We've tried to keep the aesthetics as they were when the state acquired the

house in 1945," Thomas Soyster explains. "The portico was already gone, but if

balustrade needed replacing, we did it."

When the twelfth governor to reside at 990 Prospect Avenue, John G. Rowland,

arrived with his wife, Patricia, and their five children in 1994, what they

found - the Weickers' substantial progress notwithstanding - was not yet a

showplace. Under the First Lady's watch, the library and sunroom have been

completed, and the interior palette - a paintbox during the Weickers' stay -

has been subdued.

Dressed from head to toe in taupe, her seafoam sweater perfectly setting off

her green eyes, Connecticut's stylish First Lady unsqueamishly reveals the

private quarters: children's bedrooms with teen accoutrement, sitting room

with television, and a galley of a library long ago fitted with a pool table

by Governor Baldwin. In an ironic upstairs/downstairs twist, the Rowlands

often take refuge in the aerie above while revelers of every stripe and

affiliation commandeer the ground floor.

"The biggest stumbling block is making it an elegant home," confides Patricia

Rowland, who must also see to making it a comfortable one. "It's always been a

problem. You can't ask the state to pay, but you have to live here. I consider

the house a responsibility. By the time I leave, I hope to have made it

stately but livable."

The yellow, coral and white sunroom with a sky-blue ceiling is comfortably

furnished with wicker and accented with paintings by Old Lyme Impressionists

Nelson White, Ernest Albert and Guy Wiggins. Designated shopper Arthur

Liverant recently purchased pewter by some of Connecticut's best-known makers:

the Boardmans of Hartford, the Danforths of Middletown and the Griswolds of

Meriden. It sits above a fireplace in the cheerful room.

The adjacent library is dark and rich, with grained cabinetry and an

assortment of antique furniture.

The library leads to a grand foyer, recently fitted with a new chandelier and

a parquetry floor embellished with the state seal. A Connecticut-made Timex

tall clock presented to Governor Woodruff in 1908 by his personal staff

strikes the hour.

Stairways on either side of the entrance spiral up to the second floor. On

display are Norwich sculptor Bela Pratt's hypothetical rendition of Nathan

Hale, whose true appearance is unknown, and Mark Twain, whose true identity

was Samuel Clemens.

"He's my hero," says Patricia Rowland. "He has a place of prominence in my

home."

In the dining room, Chippendale-style chairs with cushions worked by the

Connecticut Valley Embroiders' Guild surround a Duncan Phyfe-style table from

the Hartford workshop of Nathan Margolis. An International Silver Company tea

service is displayed on a sideboard pushed against the wall.

"I'm so proud of this," says the First Lady, who learned of the service, made

to commemorate the Battleship Connecticut in 1906, at a luncheon hosted by

Claudia Weicker. The O'Neills had returned the service to the State Library.

The 1,300-ounce set is awash with naval battle scenes, ships of Connecticut

interest and the Capitol in Hartford.

Scattered throughout the house are paintings and furniture on loan from the

Connecticut Historical Society: a tall clock by Benjamin Cheney, a portrait by

Silas Deane, a copy of a miniature by New Haven-born painter Jared B. Flagg,

an Eighteenth Century Guilford dressing table and a Federal chest of drawers.

Other lenders include the Wadsworth Atheneum, the Mattatuck Museum and the

Florence Griswold Museum.

"The goal is to furnish the house with appropriate antiques from Connecticut,

particularly those with significance to governors who lived here," explains

Arthur Liverant. "So far, we've acquired some great rugs and a really

outstanding tilt-top tripod birdcage tea table. It is one of only three or

four known that are branded by Amzi Chapin, the younger brother of Aaron. He

worked in the Hartford area between 1790-95."

Soliciting contributions to the residence, Liverant notes that while furniture

need not be in museum condition, it should be artistic, useful and significant

to Connecticut. Conservancy collections, he adds, are held in trust for the

public.

Deaccessioning may not be undertaken as a means of generating revenue, only as

a way of expanding or improving collections. Works may also be loaned, for a

minimum of three years.

Though decisions about the house are made by committee, everyone involved with

the Governor's Residence Conservancy has a wish, secret or otherwise. Arthur

Liverant dreams of "Connecticut chairs, Pembroke tables, a Connecticut sofa -

if one turned up." Patricia Rowland fancies charming Hartford souvenir pieces.

Jo McKenzie would like to see some of the upholstered furniture finally

recovered. Wilson Wilde envisions "a respectable home for the Governor and his

wife, and a place where dignitaries can visit."

All agree with McKenzie, who says, "It takes so much to put a house together

again when it has been neglected. This one has come a long way. Citizens can

be proud of it, and the next family can look forward to living in it."

Tours of first floor reception rooms of the Governor's Residence are available

by appointment. Telephone 860/566-4840.