The Pride of Place and Lustrous Provenance of Raynham
By Duo Dickinson, FAIA
We all live in our homes (more than ever these days), and we live on streets. The Kneeland Townsend house — Raynham — was built on (appropriately enough) Townsend Avenue in the Annex in 1804 by Kneeland Townsend. Townsend Avenue slides slowly downhill from I-95 to Long Island Sound, and is a true boulevard, tree-lined, wide, with highlands largely east and lowlands west.
Buildings can capture the beauty that was made at a moment in history for generations to come.
In that continuum, history happens. Pre-1929 stock market crash homes, ranch-style houses from the 1950s, even pseudo-Tuscan simulations march down Townsend Avenue, all lining the composed, treed portal. History is metered by those homes, but history is also captured, caught in side water eddies of delight by Raynham.
Set back and high, on acres of nineteenth-century estate amid twentieth-century jumble, the noise of our present day is silenced by the proud, centered posture of this Gothic Revival home. It may be unnecessary to note, but it is on the National Register of Historic Places. When built it was called Bayridge, and in the 1850s it was greatly modified. It was renamed Raynham around 1875, after a Townsend ancestral home in Norfolk, England.
The 1850s renovations not only added several outbuildings but fully implemented the Carpenter Gothic vision of architects like A.J. Downing and Calvert Vaux, whose pattern books were virtually the rage of the era. In all our present hubbub, we can forget that buildings can capture the beauty that was made at a moment in history for generations to come. But when you encounter the pride of place and lustrous provenance of Raynham, the air is filled with the rich fragrance of history. It is worth noticing in the din.
Duo Dickinson serves on the Board of Directors of the New Haven Preservation Trust.
Historic homes and buildings like these are documented by preservationists in several different ways. Districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects may be designated at the federal, state, and/or local level as historically significant. Each level of designation offers different levels of protection, with local listing offering the strongest defense against demolition and inappropriate alterations.
Cities and municipalities may also conduct local surveys of historic resources. In the early 1980s, the Historic Resources Inventory was conducted across the state of Connecticut and now serves both homeowners and professionals alike with a wealth of information about our historic built environment.
Follow the links below to review the Historic Resources Inventory form for Raynham and its nomination to the National Register of Historic Places.
View the State Historic Resources Inventory Form →
View the National Register of Historic Places Inventory — Nomination Form →
