Holiday Festival House Tour Previews

One of the attractions of the Annual Holiday Festival in Newtown is the house tour. For one day each year, five private homes are open for visits by the public. Four of the homes on the tour this year have never before been included in the Holiday Festival, which runs from 11 am to 5 pm Sunday, December 5 this year.

Residence Of Ellen & George Whalen

65 Main Street

Decorated by Lexington Gardens

A well-executed example of a restrained but high-style Italianate residence, this charmer holds a prominent position at the head of Main Street’s west side and is now proudly owned by George and Ellen Whalen. A marker in the cellar in a granite block dates the house to 1867.

Upon entering this home there is a feeling of grandeur. There are nine-foot ceilings, beautifully detailed crown moldings, wonderful four over four rounded long windows, and spacious sun-filled rooms. Mr and Mrs Whalen have been carefully restoring the house to its original beauty.

Graced by a fine old pegged barn, the property was once a small active farm owned by George Mayer. Although he had mostly retired as a farmer and had moved into town, people would stop at the Mayer house for milk and, from here, milk was transported to Bridgeport. Perhaps it was the Mayer family who built the large wheel and trap doors that could raise and lower the cows in the barn.

Residence of Judith & Ronald Benson

42 Mount Pleasant Road

Decorated By Newtown Florist

This grand old house at 42 Mount Pleasant Road is the home of Judy and Ronald Benson. In the Queen Anne style, it was built circa 1898. It is a three-bay, symmetrical house with a side-gabled roof and two chimneys; one off the west side, the other off-center to the east.

There are decorative cut trusses under the eaves, while the front porch is flat roofed with four supporting columns and exhibits a decorative balustrade. The front door is obscured but the top one-third is one pane of beveled-cut glass.

The gracious Queen Anne-style home – with its decorative cut detailing, abundance of windows, crown moldings and almost ten-foot ceilings – is a significant contribution to the historic character of the area. It is important as a conservative example of the changing stylistic tastes evident in the late 19th Century.

A well-known story concerning 42 Mount Pleasant is of Jack Diamond, a wealthy Newtown farmer who resided in the house. Seems one day he was stung by a bee and soon died. His property was then divided and sold, some of it becoming the genesis of Diamond Drive nearby.

Residence of Kim & Palmer Chiapetta

6 Main Street

Decorated By The Homeowners

& The House Tour Committee

Built between 1760 and 1780, Thankeful House is part of the original town lot allocated to Abraham Kimberly, which extended all the way down Glover Street to Queen Street. The house was originally built as a farmhouse and the lot was not subdivided until the early 1800s.

Thankeful House is a typical center-chimney Colonial, varying from what might be thought of as the standard only in not having a staircase to the second floor just inside the front door. Instead, the stone and timbers of the central chimney are exposed, making a striking entrance.

Owners Kim and Palmer Chiapetta are currently restoring the house to its original beauty. The Georgian front porch is a 20th Century addition, probably built during a major remodeling in 1926, and which replaced long Victorian porches.

It is believed that the ell at the rear of the house was also added during this 1926 remodeling, making room for a separate kitchen and bathroom downstairs, and an enlarged master bedroom upstairs.

The house is of post and beam construction, with the “gunstock” corner post (tops wider than the bottoms) exposed.

Residence Of Tammara & Ian McMahon

4 West Street

Decorated By Burr Farm Garden Center

Built in the early to mid-19th Century, the house at 4 West Street is noteworthy as an example of a simple three-quarter Colonial and for its contribution to the historic character of Newtown during that time.

Town records show that the property was transferred to Bennett Blackman for the purchase price of $3,100 sometime in 1872 for use as an inn or tavern, and bore the name The Colonial Knight Place.

Current owners Tammara and Ian McMahon state that numerous horseshoes have been found in and around the large barn on the rear of the property. This may suggest that horses were regularly re-shod here at one time and thus it is thought that the building was used as a stopover for early travelers en route to Danbury or Waterbury.

The barn actually predates the house, according to the mapping of John Boyle for the period of 1709-1758, and is estimated to be approximately 200 years old.

Residence of Meghan Rice

1 Schoolhouse Hill Road

Decorated by Newtown Country Mill & Garden Center

This home is a charming early example of the bungalow-style dwelling built during the first half of the 20th Century, and represents the architectural style of houses constructed during that time on Schoolhouse Hill Road along Hanover Road to Hall Lane.

Owned and being lovingly restored by Meghan Rice, the house was built on a rubblestone foundation almost at the top of the rise as Schoolhouse Hill Road approaches Main Street. It was constructed in 1901. Characteristic of the style, a shed-roofed dormer, with paired, three-over-one sash and exposed rafters opens from the front roof-face.

The house is best known for its delightful and spacious front porch, which extends the length of the first floor level. Local artist Kira Van Deusen was recently commissioned to paint the wonderful murals on the risers of the steps leading up to the porch, which depict some of the homeowner’s favorite Newtown landmarks.

In addition to the homes on the house tour, the public will be welcomed into a number of familiar buildings during the festival. Among these locations are Newtown Meeting House, at 31 Main Street (after 2 pm); the Matthew Curtiss House, 44 Main Street; the offices of The Bee Publishing Co, at 5 Church Hill Road; Newtown General Store, 43 Main Street; and Trinity Church (the sanctuary will be open after 12:30).