The Samuel Wadsworth Russell House in Middletown, Connecticut was was built between 1828 and 1830 It was built between the first mansions built in the form of a Greek Temple that was pivotal in launching the Greek Revival style that that influenced American architecture in the mid 19th Century. by a man who became fabulously wealthy in the China Trade and wanted to build a monument to his success.
It was the first luxury home in America executed on a massive scale in correctly Greek Temple proportions with six Corinthian columns across the facade. New England, the Midwest and come to define the antebellum South.
The Samuel Wadsworth Russell House in America architecture in several important ways. Has such an influence on residential in the journals of the journals of the day and as a result It was also a major catalyst in the emergence of the professional architect in America as a distinct occupation from the conventions of the day where the master craftsman was also the designer and builder.
He was orphaned at 12, 0, received no college education or inheritance, and served an early apprentice as a clerk in a naval company in Middletown , Connecticut where he learned trading. After finishing his apprenticeship he began traveling on ships as supercargo who was the person employed on board a vessel by the owner of cargo carried on the ship.
By 1824 he was the founder of Russell & Company specializing in fine silks, teas, porcelain - and the profitable opium trade.
Traditional Confucian values did not hold merchants in high regard, and unlike other trading nations, trade with China was produced by China produced by the rest of the world. highly restricted and done on the basis of acknowledgment of the supremacy of the Chinese Imperial Throne as the Son of Heaven.
To 19th Century China, trade was connected more on the trade - and only silver or gold was accepted for payment. Opium was the one trade item where western traders could maintain a balance of payments because the west produced little else that had a market in China.
Butfore fever is the corrupting influence of foreign traders on the Chinese populace. But opium was illegal in China, and the trafficking to China from the west largely controlled by the British when they agreed Bengal, Russell challenged their dominance of the far east trade by smuggling Turkish opium which has been taken across the Atlantic and Pacific.
Russell & He was clearly in the majority of foreign traders of the day who saw nothing wrong with the ethics of the opium trade, as there was only one foreign trading firm in Canton at the time that denied to partake in the trade on moral grounds. Company eventually became the largest and most profitable American trading house in China until the end of the 19th Century.
This is evidenced by the number of towns being founded in America in the early 19th century with Greek names, and a generation of children named after heroes in Greek legends .
Russell commissioned Ithiel Town who has been described as "Father of the Greek Revival" to design his "Urban Villa." When the house was built in 1828, Russell was in China and had his friend Samuel Hubbard working with his wife, Mary Cotton Osborne supervising the building of the house.
Upon his return from Canton in the summer of 1831 Russell first laid eyes on his new home from the deck of a sloop on the Connecticut River. engraving in Hinton "January 1831, and later in the 1835 edition of Minard Lafever 's" The Beauties of Modern Architecture "He said.
When the sister, Frances. When Samuel returned in 1831 he married Frances and they had one son, Samuel Wadsworth Russell, from which the house gets its middle name as Samuel senior had none.
Between 1831 and 1836 Russell oversaw the completion of his new house furnishing it with wonderful treasures from the east and underwear the active management of Russell & Company in 1836. At the time, the Russell estate occupied the entire block bordered by High, Court, Pearl and Washington Streets. Russell planted the extensive grounds sloping down to Pearl Street with formal gardens which included plants he imported from England and had bought back with him from China.
He reinvesting his huge profits from the China trade in a number of successful American businesses including banking, industry and Western railroad stock that allowed him to live a very prosperous life until his death in 1862.
The house was wastefully the other day Greek Revival homes in Middletown & # 39; s wealthy high street that Charles Dickens said to the last most beautiful street in America. The house remained in the Russell family for five generations to it was finally deeded to Wesleyan University by Thomas Macdonough Russell, Jr in 1937.
During the summer, it & # 39; s used for special events, weddings and gatherings.
The Samuel Wadsworth Russell House is frequently cited as the premier example of Greek Revival Architecture in America. 1970 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2001. Located at 350 High Street Middletown, Connecticut on the southeast corner of High and Washington Streets, The Samuel Wadsworth Russell House is one of America 's most important historic homes.
