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| The Gabriel Coite House, Middletown, CT. 1856 |
The Gabriel Coite house is another structure on High Street in Middletown. Built in 1856 for Coite, a state senator and treasurer, it was later acquired by Jane Hubbard. It became in 1904 the house of Wesleyan's president. The house follows the
symmetrical plan with a projecting center pavilion topped by an angled pediment and a stuccoed facade. The detailing is appropriately grand for the pretensions of the house's builder. The windows have carved brackets with a cornice; this design is elaborated on the front by carved foliage that wells up in the cornice's center. The porch is unusually large with doubled columns that have un-classical Corinthian style capitals surrounding the arched door. The main cornice has an architrave molding with long brackets and panels set between each bracket, making it a
paneled cornice. There is a bull's eye on the projecting pavilion's panel. The sides of the house are interesting too, with narrow windows in the central bays. There is a box window on the south facade, while the north facade has an impressive awning porch that runs the length with a tent roof supported by oversize brackets. This covers a patio. On the top of the roof is a cupola with paired segmental arched windows. The two-tone grey color of the house with its white trim seems to have been taken right out of the
John Riddle's work. Everything about this house says rich and sober to me, suitable characteristics for the New England business owner.
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