Historic Hartford CT Homes: Day-Taylor House
The Day-Taylor House was built in 1857 in beautiful Italianate villa-style architecture at the same time that Samuel Colt, the creator of the Colt Revolver, built his Armsmear estate directly across the street. Located in the center of Colt’s architectural legacy at 81 Wethersfield Avenue, it has been the residence of several prominent families from Hartford, Connecticut.
The Day-Taylor House was built by Hirim Billel, the highly regarded Hartford builder who also built the Connecticut State Capitol and the Memorial Arch in Bushnell Park. He was influenced by the ideas of Andrew Jackson Downing, who wrote treatises on landscape design and architecture that were very popular at the time. It is an example of a style that Downing called “Italian” based on the Italian farmhouses that were also depicted in popular landscape paintings of the time.
The three-story building of red brick masonry and white trim has an asymmetrical façade dominated by floor-to-ceiling arched windows on all levels, balconies, cast-iron lintels, and a flat-roofed dome. The supports lining the sloping roof and dome are particularly detailed and ornate. The three-part gallery of the front façade is supported by elaborate Corinthian columns. The front façade has remained unchanged since its original construction.
The first owner and resident was Albert F. Day, a descendant of Robert Day, one of Hartford’s original colonial settlers. The house was later occupied by his father, a Connecticut attorney general. Subsequent owners included Mary Borden Munsill of the Borden Milk Company and Edwin Taylor. In 1928 the house was purchased by the Fraternal Order of Eagles who used it as a meeting house and headquarters. In 1974 it was purchased by the Hartford Redevelopment Agency.
The Day-Taylor House also has an important location in Hartford’s Colt architectural legacy, which stretches for two blocks on both sides of Wethersfield Avenue. The area has been designated as the Coltsville Historic District.
The Day-Taylor House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. It underwent significant restoration in 1979, and the building now serves as offices. The combination that it was built by one of Hartford’s most distinguished builders, Hirim Billel, that it was built the same year and directly across the street from the Samuel Colt Home and Armsmear Estate Park, and that it has been owned and occupied by so many notable Hartford residents make it one of the most important historic homes in Hartford, Connecticut.