Historic Francis House Will Once Again be a Family Home

Wethersfield, February 1, 2019

Wethersfield Historical Society has announced that the Captain James Francis House at 120 Hartford Avenue, which has been in its care since 1969, will be offered for sale this spring. The house has been meticulously restored and maintained by the society and has been open to the public on an irregular basis for the past 50 years.

Governing Board President Elaine St. Onge commented that “this was not a decision taken lightly. It is the result of a year’s worth of strategic planning and allows the historical society to focus its resources in the most prudent fashion.”

The house was built in 1793 by Captain James Francis for his family. Francis was a master builder in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, well-known for his elegant doorways and fancy interior trim. These features are still evident in many houses in the historic district including the Deming-Standish House, now Lucky Lou’s restaurant in the village center.

Descendants of the Francis family lived in the house until 1967 when it passed to the last living Francis cousin, Chauncey Stillman, who, with his two daughters, gifted the house to the historical society in 1969.

Although the house was open seasonally for many years and was the site of some educational programming, visitation was sparse due to its location outside of the village center and the availability of similar house museums nearby.

It is the hope of the society that the house will once again become a home for a family who will value its architecture, history and its tree-lined property of over an acre. Board member Dorene Ciarcia, a past president and a docent in the house in the 1980s, put it this way, “This house was a family home for over 150 years and we are now going to return it to the life it was built for.”

The historical society is a private, non-profit community organization whose mission is “to preserve and promote Wethersfield history and culture to inspire people today and tomorrow.” It produces award-winning exhibits, public and school programs, operates the Keeney Memorial Cultural Center (the museum and town’s visitor center), maintains the Hurlbut-Dunham House Museum, and operates the Old Academy Genealogical and Research Library and the Cove Warehouse Maritime Museum. All of the society’s properties are open to the public free of charge.

For more information, call Executive Director Amy Wittorff at the Wethersfield Historical Society at 860.529.7656 or email her at amy.wittorff@wethersfieldhistory.org.