Roseland Cottage, also known as Henry C. Bowen House or as Bowen Cottage, is a Gothic summer house located in Woodstock, Connecticut.
The History Of Roseland Cottage
Roseland Cottage was built in 1846 by the English architect Joseph C. Wells. The property was built in the Gothic Revival style as a summer house for New York-based Henry Chandler Brown and his large family, which included ten children.
Henry Chandler Brown was an American businessman who was born in Woodstock but moved to New York, where he started work at a dry-goods company before starting his own business specialising in silks.
During the American Civil War (1861-1865), Henry lost many of his clients for his silk business, who were based in the South. After the loss of clients, his company went bankrupt. However, by this time, he had considerable income from his other business, a newspaper.
In 1848, two years after building Roseland Cottage, he founded ‘The Independent’ a weekly Congregationalist newspaper that was closely associated with his local church, Plymouth Church, located in Brooklyn heights.
Plymouth Church, located in Brooklyn, was also designed by Joseph C. Wells.
The Independent was strongly pro-abolitionist as well as pro-women’s suffrage. He later became an editor for the newspaper as well as chief financier. By 1870, The Independent had a circulation of 70,000, one of which was Abraham Lincoln.
By 1870, Bowen began hosting huge Fourth of July celebrations at his home. Over the years, four different US presidents, Grant, Harrison, Hayes, and McKinley, all visited Roseland Cottage as his guest speakers during the celebrations.
Henry Chandler Bowen died in 1896 at the age of 82.
Roseland Cottage In Recent years
In 1977 Roseland Cottage was added to the National Register of Historic Places; it was then declared a National Landmark in 1992.
Today the property is owned by Historic New England, a non-profit organisation that preserves the historical value of the house and operates it as a museum. The property now also hosts weddings and parties throughout the year.
Visitors to the Roseland Cottage, or what the locals call ‘The Pink House,’ can enjoy the beautiful boxwood-edge parterre gardens planted in the 1850s, an aviary, a carriage barn, and an icehouse.
However, what may be the most surprising is that Roseland Cottage is home to the USA’s oldest surviving bowling alley. You don’t find bowling alleys like this anymore!
