carolyn kellogg

Born in 1758 in Connecticut, Noah Webster first put together classroom textbooks known as blue-backed spellers, then spent 20 years creating the first American dictionary. Webster’s.

In the first half of the 20th century, my great-grandfather and great-grandmother bought the Noah Webster house and moved in, raised their family there. But by the 1950s, the low ceilings and drafty colonial styling didn’t suit them, and they built and moved into a modern house. Their son Fred, his wife Jane and their 3 kids moved into the old place. By the time I was old enough to absorb any of this, my great-grandmother, in her 90s, had all the modern conveniences, including an electric chair that carried her up the wide staircase to the 2nd floor of her new house. The family donated the Webster home to the town of West Hartford in 1962.

Until yesterday, I hadn’t seen it. When I pulled up, I realized it was closed Wednesdays. But the staff — who say very nice things about great-uncle Fred and great-aunt Jane — gave me a private tour after I told them about my family.

The most striking thing about the inside is that it smells of soot, from the enormous fireplaces, just one upstairs (chilly!). There are three downstairs — two that are 8-10 feet wide, one in the original kitchen and another in the “lean-to” – an addition that was built in the late 1700s, and contained an updated kitchen, a downstairs bedroom and a buttery. (A buttery? Yep, a cool room for dairy products. A room full of butter: mmmm.) It’s also neat that the doors’ latches are all so low (I felt normal-sized, not short), and the floorboards are 14+ inches wide from what must have been the enormous early New England trees.

I know it’s been restored to its original condition, but it’s hard to imagine my family living there in the 20th century. They had plumbing, which is gone now. And I assume electricity. I’m trying to picture a 1950s TV set back into one of those fireplaces.