Roseland Cottage, also known as Henry C. Bowen House or as Bowen Cottage, is a historic house located on Route 169 in Woodstock, Connecticut. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977, and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1992.
It is now owned by Historic New England, a non-profit organization that preserves the historical value of the house and operates it as a museum. It is open several days a week from June 1 through October 15.
Roseland Cottage was built in 1846 in the Gothic Revival style as the summer home of Henry Chandler Bowen and family. The entire complex, with a boxwood parterre garden, an icehouse, garden house, and a carriage barn with a private bowling alley, reflects the principles of writer and designer Andrew Jackson Downing. In his widely popular books, Downing stressed practicality along with the picturesque, and offered detailed instructions on room function, sanitation, and landscaping.
Three United States Presidents visited Bowen's summer home as his guests and speakers for 4 July celebrations: Ulysses S. Grant, Benjamin Harrison, and Rutherford B. Hayes. Only Grant visited while he was a sitting President; he spent a night there in spite of the fact that Bowen (a teetotaler) forbade drinking and smoking in his home. Other prominent visitors included Henry Ward Beecher and John C. Fremont.
Today the house remains in excellent historic condition, with original Gothic furniture and embossed Lincrusta Walton wall decoration. The house is painted coral pink with black trim, and located on Woodstock's village green. Its grounds contain twenty-one flowerbeds with more than 4,000 annuals bordered in boxwood, in their original 1850 pattern, and now form part of Connecticut's Historic Gardens.
The house is a contributing property within NRHP-listed Woodstock Hill Historic District.
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