Over 10 Acres in Hartland, CT - $675,000
184 Sunset Road, Hartland, CT 06027
3 bed/2 bath - 2,356 sqft
The Old Brockway House Built by Edward Brockway, who in 1799 was one of the first residents of Hartland to leave New England for the fertile plains of Ohio, the 19th-century American equivalent of the Promised Land! This rare old "primitive" colonial appears to qualify as what many historians consider a "First Period" house. Built decades before the American Revolution, it contains many elements of a home erected closer to the 17th century than the 19th. It is located on a dead-end street with Tunxis State Forest abutting on 3 sides.
The house design is classic early American, featuring a central chimney, multiple hearths in each first-floor room, a narrow winding staircase from the entry hall to the upper story, and built-in corner cupboards with shaped shelves. The floors include both wide hardwood and softwood boards. All the interior doors are board-and-batten style, using feathered-edge paneling and either Suffolk or Norfolk latches. Much of the first-floor ceiling consists of rough, adze-cut exposed posts and beams, including magnificent summer beams. In some rooms, the floorboards from the room above are visible, still bearing old saw marks from a vertical up-and-down saw blade. Architectural elements include cantilevered floors on both the second story and attic, a steeply pitched roof, relatively small double-hung sash windows, and heavy entry doors with ancient box locks that require large old skeleton keys. Of particular interest are the raised fireboxes, cooking cranes, and interior beehive ovens in both the old kitchen and the east parlor. The kitchen firebox still retains its original steel oven door.
