History in houses: the Butler-McCook house and garden in Hartford, Connecticut

Magazine Antiques, August, 2002 by Beverly Johnson Lucas

When Eliza Sheldon married John Butler in 1837, the Butler house was considered old-fashioned. Built of wood rather than the more fashionable brick and lacking up-to-date embellishments, it was increasingly out of step with its surroundings. After 1840, wood was rarely if ever used for new construction and brick helped to define the city's increasingly urban character. (14)

Eliza compensated for an old-fashioned house by making several architectural changes. About the time of her wedding, a Greek revival entrance portico and classical mantels in the north parlor and dining room were added. The roof of the kitchen ell was raised and a suite of rooms for servants added on the second story. In a letter to her daughter from her first marriage, Mary Lydia Sheldon, who was boarding with relatives in New York City, Eliza wrote in February 1837:

I have been over the bridge today to attend to some proposed alterations in the kitchen and upper back room which are to be made for servants by raising the roof of the kitchen part of the house. It is, as you I suppose know, an old fashioned square house with a hall opening into a porch on the east, the two rooms in front square, I think 15 x 17 or 19 feet, the two back small comfortable and pleasant rooms, the one on the north opening into and (somewhat modernized) to correspond--the north parlor--the south front parlor an old fashioned but pleasant and neat room--which I do not think necessary to alter as it will be just as comfortable as it is and I shall want to use it for such a one, more than display. (15)

In another letter to Mary she remarked that her husband encouraged her to buy whatever she needed to furnish the house. She wrote:

I have engaged to go this afternoon with Sally who is to call for me, to examine the interior of the mansion & see what is wanting in repairs or furniture & afterwards to order at Mr. Wright whatever I wish. You know I choose neatness, rather than splendor & should wish to see all things correspond, therefore whilst I select those articles which will conduce to comfort & be suitable to our station, I shall endeavor to bear in mind that is for a pleasant but plain house, & I can be just as happy in a frame as a brick house. (16)

Many of her furnishings that remain in the house, including an Empire sofa (see Pl. X), a bedroom suite, and a set of chairs, were purchased from Isaac Wright, who established a furniture business in Hartford around 1828. When John Butler died in 1847, his widow was given the use of the house for her lifetime, but his entire estate, valued at more than one hundred thousand dollars, went to their daughter, also named Eliza (see Pl. XI, right). (17)

In 1856, Eliza Royse Butler, and her two daughters, Mary Sheldon and young Eliza Butler, went on a grand tour of Europe for two-and-a-hall years. There, young Eliza attended boarding schools where she was instructed in French, music, and art. Her sketchbooks and copies of European old master paintings that still hang in the Main Street house (see Pl. II) reflect her love of art and indicate her early talent. (18) Their mother died in Paris in 1858, and Eliza and Mary returned to Hartford, where Mary, forty-two and unmarried, took charge of housekeeping for her eighteen-year-old half-sister. The two women lived in the Main Street house with three servants.