We try to keep this list of historic house museums for Connecticut current, but it is best to check directly with the museums for their hours and other information.
If you know of a historic house museum not in our list, please submit it.
If you are the director of a museum in our listings and you would like to claim your listing so you are able to maintain your listing yourself, please email us at info@vpa.org and we will set you up.

The house is furnished largely with objects owned by members of the Day family, including toys and locally produced ceramics and silver, and still features the original floor and stair stenciling applied to mimic carpeting. Also on display are a selection of photographs from among the thousands taken by pioneering art photographer Dr. Amasa Day Chaffee between 1890 and… Read More

Boothe Memorial Park & Museum sits on an idyllic, 32 acre site in the north end of Stratford by the Housatonic River, which was the estate of the Boothe family for many generations and willed to the town in 1949 for the public to enjoy. The park is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. There are many… Read More

The circa 1730 structure began life as a home for prosperous merchants and gained recognition later as a boarding house and gathering place for many prominent American artists and writers. It is a National Historic Landmark operated by the Greenwich Historical Society, which also runs an art gallery, gift shop, summer camp, and many programs throughout the year such… Read More

For 189 years the Butler-McCook House & Garden was home to four generations of a family who participated in, witnessed, and recorded the evolution of Main Street between the American Revolution and the mid-twentieth century. The house's exterior looks much as it did when it was built in 1782. Behind it is a restored Victorian ornamental garden, originally laid… Read More

The Christopher Leffingwell House Museum is considered one of the finest restored examples of New England's Colonial Architecture. Displayed within it's walls are wonderful examples of early Norwich silversmiths and clock makers. It is a living museum where visitors can experience 18th century civilian life as they walk through its' rooms and feel a connection to those who founded… Read More

The museum consists of the 1785 Rider House which contains period furnishings; textile and historical exhibits, the 1790 Dodd Hat Shop; a library; and changing exhibits in Huntington Hall. Read More

Built in 1717, this colonial post and beam structure is located 5 minutes from downtown Mystic on 160 of the original 200 acres of land granted to Captain George Denison in 1654. The house was restored in the mid 1940's by famed architectural historian J. Fredrick Kelly. Five of the rooms have been restored to reflect five different historic… Read More

The House is a National Historic Landmark. Designed by Samuel Belcher, architect of the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme, and built for William Noyes in 1817, the Late Georgian-style mansion reflects the affluent, formal style of living during Old Lyme's maritime era. The period rooms rekindle the spirit of another life and time. Read More

The David Humphreys house is where our nations first ambassador to a forign country lived. David Humphreys served on George Washington's staff during the Revolution. Read More

Atop the most southerly hill in a chain known as the Seven Sisters, William Hooker Gillette, noted actor, director, and playwright, built this one hundred and eighty-four acre estate, the Seventh Sister. The focal point of his effort was a twenty four room mansion reminiscent of a medieval castle. Read More

The house was built about 1750 and is an architecturally interesting and unusual combination of gambrel and saltbox roof styles. In 1926, the famed English horticultural designer and writer was commissioned to plan an "old fashioned" garden to enhance the newly created museum. Gertrude Jekyll (pronounced jeek uhl) had a profound influence on modern garden design and is widely… Read More

A visit to the Stowe Center begins with the Harriet Beecher Stowe House, a charming Victorian Gothic Revival home (1871), and includes Victorian-style gardens, the Katharine Seymour Day House (1884), a grand mansion adjacent to the Stowe House and the Stowe Visitor Center (1873), with changing exhibitions and the museum store. Read More

Built by Nathaniel Harrison in 1724 as a "two over two"" house and occupied by his family and descendants until 1800 Read More

Built more than two centuries ago in 1767 for his bride, Esther Buckingham, the General William Hart house is one of the earliest houses in Saybrook, the first settlement on the southern shore of Connecticut. Read More

Shaded by a 300-year-old sycamore tree, the Hatheway House provides a glimpse of 18th century life. The main block of the house was built in the 1760s by Shem Burbank for his bride. Here they raised a large family until financial reverses forced the sale of the property to Oliver Phelps, a prosperous land speculator. To reflect his increasing… Read More

The Hempsted Houses comprises two buildings: the 1678 Joshua Hempsted House and the 1759 Nathaniel Hempsted House. The Joshua Hempsted House is a frame building and is one of New England’s oldest and best-documented dwellings. Joshua Hempsted lived here his whole life, filling many roles, including farmer, judge, gravestone carver, shipwright, and father of nine children left motherless by… Read More

The Whitfield family home also served as a fort for the community. Its massive stone walls and chimneys, steeply-pitched roof, and casement windows reflect the style of post-medieval domestic architecture found in England – rare in 17th century America and unique today. Through the years, the "Old Stone House"" has undergone many changes and many families have called it… Read More

The 152-acre property features an Arts and Crafts carriage barn and theater, stone garages, woodland trails, a pond and dairy complex, and a Sunken Garden designed by Beatrix Farrand c. 1920. Read More

Perhaps most impressive to visitors is the quantity and quality of the millwork that can be seen throughout this residence. Built by the Hotchkiss Brothers Company (the family business), the house was obviously a showpiece for the firm. Mahogany, birds-eye maple, quarter-sawn oak and red birch are just a few of the types of wood used in the house.… Read More

Built in 1790s in the Georgian style, the house was occupied in 1804 by Captain John Hurlbut, a successful mariner who circumnavigated the globe on the ship Neptune. In the 1860s, the house was remodeled by Levi Goodwin to reflect the Italianate style popular at that time. An ell containing kitchens, servants’ quarters and a large copper cistern to… Read More

The Hyland House, a museum of early colonial life and architecture, was built circa 1690-1710. Scheduled for demolition in 1916, it was purchased and restored by the Dorothy Whitfield Historic Society. It has been open to the public as a living historical environment since 1918. Read More

Jonathan Trumbull Junior's Georgian-style house was probably built sometime in the early 1760s by his father, Jonathan Trumbull Sr. Jonathan Jr. and his bride Eunice Backus of Norwich were living in the house at least by 1767, the year they were married, although Jonathan did not purchase the house from his father until 1777. He then hired master joiner… Read More

A National Historic Landmark since 1971, the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum is regarded as one of the earliest and most significant Second Empire Style country houses in the United States. Built by renowned financier and railroad baron LeGrand Lockwood, during and shortly after the Civil War years, (1864 to 1868), the mansion, with its unparalleled Gilded Age interiors and furniture,… Read More

The Monte Cristo Cottage was the boyhood summer home of Eugene O'Neill from 1900 until 1917, when he began supporting himself as a playwright. Named in honor of his father, actor James O'Neill's most popular role, the dashing Edmund Dantes in The Count Of Monte Cristo, the 1840s cottage is both a Registered National Landmark and a museum, featuring… Read More

The Nathan Hale Homestead was the home of the family of State Hero, Nathan Hale. Constructed in 1776, the current house is the second dwelling built on the property. Nathan’s father, Richard Hale, was a prosperous livestock farmer and built the house for his large family. Ardent patriots, six of Richard's eight sons served in the patriot army. One… Read More

The society has 5 buildings open including the 1764 Hanford-Silliman House Museum, and the Town House which contains a costume museum. Read More

Webster's birthplace helps to tell the story of one man's vision and his impact on American culture. Through the promotion of education, laws, human rights, and language, Noah Webster helped to create a national identity for a fledgling nation.; Though he accomplished much more during his life, Webster is best remembered for authoring two of America’s most influential books,… Read More

Adjacent to the rolling hills and open meadows of Osbornedale State Park, the recently renovated Osborne Homestead Museum encompasses the house and grounds of the former Frances Osborne Kellogg Estate. Originally constructed in the mid-1800s, the house was enlarged and completely remodeled in the Colonial Revival style during the 1920s. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, its… Read More

Built by Amos Morris around 1750, the house was burned by the British during their raid on New Haven in 1779 and rebuilt by the Morris family. It remained in that family until 1915, when it was purchased by William Pardee, a descendant of the Morris family, who hoped to make it his home. Read More

The Phelps house and tavern was owned by five generations of the Phelps family for nearly two hundred years. The building served as family home, canal hotel, lodge meeting site, entertainment hall, and local tavern. From 1786 until 1849, three generations of fathers and sons, and one widow, served as tavern-keepers. Read More

Seven generations of the Pratt family lived here continously from 1701 until 1915. Originally built in 1701 by John Pratt Jr., the house has been added on to and changed to meet the needs of the family, and social changes as the village moved from an agrarian society to one in which the building of sailing ships dominated. It… Read More

This bright red house on the Boston Post Road has had a long and colorful history. It was originally built in the 17th century and has grown over the years into its current size and shape. During this time, a number of elements have both been added and removed from the structure. Read More

Built in 1846 in the newly fashionable Gothic Revival style, Roseland Cottage depicts the summer life of Henry and Lucy Bowen and their young family. Prominently situated across from the town common, Roseland Cottage epitomizes Gothic Revival architecture, with its steep gables, decorative bargeboards, and ornamented chimney pots. The interior of Roseland Cottage is equally colorful, and features elaborate… Read More

The wealthy merchant, Captain Nathaniel Shaw, began building the granite mansion in the 1750s with the help of French refugees being dispersed from Nova Scotia, the Acadians, during the time of the French and Indian War. Read More

The Stone-Otis House, ca. 1830, was built by Sarah and Dennis Stone. This house represents one of the finest old homes in what was the newly formed town of Orange. Built on the east side of the Town Green, this modified Greek Revival stands as a tribute to the fine workmanship of the time. Read More

Displays of historic diaries, photographs, periodicals, clothing and other items are featured in this house. Framed in solid oak, the house features finely crafted woodwork, stairways, and fireplaces. Read More

The house where Samuel Huntington was born and raised was built for his father about 1723. It was two stories in height with one room on each floor. In the present house, the east front room on the ground floor and the chamber above it are Nathaniel Huntington's original house. In form and construction, this house reflected a conservative… Read More

Built circa 1750 by Capt. David Judson on the site of his great-grandfather's 1639 stone house, Judson House is a fine example of Georgian achitecture with its impressive broken scroll pediment entry. It is furnished with period pieces of Stratford origin. The beautiful paneled "west roome"" contains an early piano which belonged to William Samuel Johnson Read More

The Mark Twain House & Museum, a National Historic Landmark in Hartford, Connecticut, was the home of America’s greatest author, Samuel Clemens (a.k.a. Mark Twain) and his family from 1874 to 1891. It is also where Twain lived when he wrote his most important works, including Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Prince and The… Read More

In 1773, the newly married Tapping Reeve and Sally Burr Reeve settled in Litchfield where Reeve promptly established a legal practice. The following year, Sally's brother Aaron Burr came to live with them and Reeve began to instruct him in the law. Several prominent residents of Litchfield also sent their sons to Reeve for legal training, establishing his reputation… Read More

The New York architecture firm of Hoppin and Koen designed a domain on a par with the estates of Lenox, Massachusetts, and the "cottages"" of Newport Read More

Besides the 1774 Thomas Griswold House Museum and the 1803 Medad Stone Tavern, the Society maintains an early blacksmith shop, a large barn filled with farm implements, two corn cribs and a Victorian three seat privy or outhouse. Read More

In 1917, Miss Chase received from her father approximately 16 acres on Jefferson Hill in Litchfield. Here she built a rustic cabin, which was replaced with a more substantial summer home in 1923. Read More

The Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum, owned and managed by the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Connecticut, operates four remarkable 18th century houses, three of which are National Historic Landmarks. The 1752 Joseph Webb House served as George Washington’s headquarters in May 1781, and was later owned by Wallace Nutting. The Silas Deane House, circa… Read More

The 1758 John and Sarah Strong House and the 1765 Dr. Hezekiah Chaffe House have changing exhibits. Read More