Hillstead Museum

Museum Hours:

Open Tuesday-Sunday 10 am–4 pm. Closed Mondays and major holidays: New Year’s Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, Fourth of July.

Hour-long guided tours begin every half-hour. Last tour of the day begins one hour before closing. Admission to Hill-Stead Museum is by GUIDED TOUR ONLY except the first Sunday of every month and certain other designated special occasions. No photography allowed inside the museum.

First Sundays:

The first Sunday of every month, tour the collection at your own pace from 12 – 4 pm, with interpreters in every room to answer questions. At 1 pm, enjoy an informal gallery talk (subjects range from Chinese Pottery to Secrets of the Cellar.) From June–October, join a guided estate walk at 2 pm to explore the property from the Wild Garden to the scenic Overlook, with commentary from your guide.

Overview:

Cheryl and I visited the Hillstead Estate in Farmington, CT recently.  Now 152 acres with a 33,000 sq. foot mansion and numerous outbuildings is located just to the south of Miss Porters School.

We did not have the time or desire on this given day to take part in the guided tour inside the actual museum so we just enjoyed the beautiful grounds on a cool summers day. I’ve captured various angels on the property in the attached slide show. Cheryl found the substantially sized sunken garden and gazebo a very serene place to collect your thoughts.

In closing I’d say this is probably not a museum children are going to want to flock to.  On the other hand adults with an appreciation of history will enjoy this visit. The interior museum tour I’m sure is quite nice also.  When we were there most folks were inside, (there was a pretty full parking lot), so the outside became our playground.  It was so peaceful with it’s sweeping views to the north east and country quiet.  I highly recommend a visit.

The following paragraphs in italics were copied directly from Wikipedia:

“Hill-Stead was created on 250 acres (1.0 km²) as a country estate for wealthy industrialist Alfred Atmore Pope, to the designs of his daughter Theodate Pope Riddle. Egerton Swartwout of the renowned architectural firm McKim, Mead, and White translated her design into a working site plan, and construction took place over the period of 1898 to 1901. Theodate inherited the house after her parents deaths, and prior to her own passing in 1946 willed Hill-Stead Museum as a memorial to her parents and “for the benefit and enjoyment of the public”. She directed that both the house and its contents remain intact, not to be moved, lent, or sold.

Currently,^[when?] Hill-Stead comprises 152 acres (0.6 km²), the balance having been sold off during the first years of the museum’s operation. Buildings which remain part of the property include the Pope-Riddle House itself (a large 33,000-square-foot (3,100 m²) mansion built in the Colonial Revival style and once described as “a great new house on a hilltop” by novelist and occasional guest Henry James); an 18th-century farm house; a carriage garage with an Arts and Crafts theater; a barn and additional farm buildings.

Today, 19 rooms of the house are open to visitors. Remaining as it was at the time of Theodate’s death, the house is extensively furnished with paintings, prints, objets d’art, and fine furniture and rugs. Highlights of the collection include major paintings by Eugène Carrière, Mary Cassatt, Edgar Degas, Édouard Manet, Claude Monet and James McNeill Whistler; prints including three engravings by Albrecht Dürer (Melencolia I, 1514), 17 copper plate etchings and lithographs by James McNeill Whistler, and Japanese woodblock prints by artists Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Hiroshige and Kitagawa Utamaro; eight bronze sculptures by Antoine-Louis Barye; about 13,000 letters and postcards including correspondence from Mary Cassatt, Henry James and James McNeill Whistler; and about 2,500 photographs, including six of Gertrude Käsebier‘s art photographs.”  (End Wikipedia)