Florence Griswold Home: Artistry Encased in Georgian-Style Architecture

In this installment of ‘Larger Than Life: Architecture Through the Ages,’ the focus is on a historic home that became a gathering place for artists.

The focal point of the Georgian-style home’s portico is a dentil-molded and lined triangular pediment, which is supported by classical columns with gold-painted ionic capitals. The bright yellow painted exterior is contrasted by green shutters and white trim. The front door’s fanlight is an example of a Federal-style design element. FloGris Museum

The Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, Connecticut, has served multiple purposes since it was built in 1817. Designed by Hartford, Connecticut architect Samuel Belcher, it originally served as the home where its namesake was born in 1850, but then operated as a Griswold’s Home School for Girls and eventually as Miss Florence’s Boardinghouse.

The late Georgian-style house with its Federal-style features, surrounded by woods and the serenity of the Lieutenant River, provided endless fodder for burgeoning 19th-century artists. As Florence Griswold explained in 1937, “So, you see, at first the artists adopted Lyme, then Lyme adopted the artists, and now, today, Lyme and art are synonymous.”

The house and the region were known for a time as the Lyme Art Colony, and the house was its centerpiece. The house was filled to the brim with paintings by around 200 artists who gathered there, and has been ornamented with painted wood panels and doors.

Griswold lived there until her death in December 1937. The house became a public museum in 1947 and a National Historic Landmark in 1993. After a $2.5 million restoration, the museum reopened in 2006. The first floor is maintained as it appeared in the early 1900s. The house’s second floor showcases a rotating gallery of the museum’s permanent collection. On the grounds are restored barns and a restored artist’s studio.

The home’s parlor served as a gathering place for evening events: Artists sketched and played music on the harp or piano. A variety of seats, including upholstered and woven chairs and an ornately carved Victorian settee, provided ample space for guests to gather comfortably. The piano is set into an arched niche, while the window niches are framed in layered moldings and wood paneling. The decorative mirror is ornamented with a gilded scrolled pediment. Joe Standart/FloGris Museum

The main floor’s interior features a spacious central hallway. The wide arched and paneled opening is topped with a capstone that gives the hallway a classic, sophisticated appearance. Forty-one paintings by artists who boarded at the home from the late 19th century to early 20th century adorn the house, including its hallway. Joe Standart/FloGris Museum

A total of 38 individual panels by 33 artists are presented in the dining room, accompanied by a frieze over the brick fireplace’s mantel. Artists staying at the Griswold house during the turn of the 20th century were responsible for the dining room scenes that depict nature, animals, architecture, and cultural subjects. Joe Standart/FloGris Museum

The Florence Griswold Museum features lush English gardens with a wide array of multi-hued perennials in a range of textures and shapes. Flowering bushes and mature trees fill in the area at the back of the house and surround the Kelly Bill and John W. Hartman Education Center. It was built in 1999 as a place to teach art and other creative endeavors. FloGris Museum

Between the hall and the parlor, Florence Griswold’s bedroom was a refuge from the countless boarders that occupied her home when it became a public boardinghouse. In the built-in corner cabinet with doors is a display of painted china by Florence’s eldest sister, Louise Augusta. The polished wood sleigh bed coordinates with the multi-drawer dresser and claw-footed round table. Over the paneled mantel is an oil painting of a ship, and on the mantel is Florence’s father’s brass spyglass. Both memorialize Robert Harper Griswold, a ship captain. Joe Standart/FloGris Museum

Situated on 12 acres, the Florence Griswold home is within walking distance of the Lieutenant River, which joins the Connecticut River. The river became a favorite subject for artists when Florence Griswold operated her property as public boardinghouse in the early 20th century. Visitors to the property can stroll from the historic house to the river by a maintained trail. Sean Flynn/FloGris Museum

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