Martha Culver House - North Haven, CT 06473

Martha Culver House exterior. Used with permission from Susan Iverson.

History of the Martha Culver House

The town of North Haven is located in southern Connecticut in New Haven county and was incorporated in 1786. At the time of incorporation, North Haven’s predominant industry was farming but the brick making industry would prove to be very profitable after the Civil War. The owner of one of the brickyards in North Haven was a man by the name of Ammi Culver who built the home that is now known as the Martha Culver House in 1858 in the Greek Revival style. The home resides on Quinnipiac Avenue and is located in the Montowese district of North Haven. Ammi Culver and his wife, Delia Culver, had two children, Benjamin and Martha Culver, who resided in the home until their deaths. Shortly after the birth of Martha, Ammi Culver died and Delia Culver remarried a man named Sam Sackett. The Culver/Sackett family was the only family to have owned and resided in this property until it was willed to the town of North Haven. After many years of the home operating as a public library, the home is now operated as a museum by the North Haven Historical Society and was placed on the Connecticut State Register of Historic Places in 2016.

Who was Martha Culver?

Martha Louisa Culver was born on July 26, 1864 to Ammi and Delia Culver. She grew up in the home now known as the Martha Culver House and lived there until her marriage at the age of 25 to Frank Smith. Martha Culver was married to Frank Smith, who was a local farm laborer, for only a short time as the marriage ended in a divorce, which was unusual for the time. After Martha’s divorce she spent many years traveling throughout the country doing service and volunteer work. After the death of her older brother, Benjamin, Martha returned to the family home in North Haven where she lived until her death in 1926. Since neither Martha nor her brother Benjamin had children, Martha willed the family home to the town of North Haven after her death with the understanding that the home and land would be used as a public library and recreational space for the people of North Haven.

A Look Inside the House

Since only one family owned the house on Quinnipiac Avenue, much of the interior remains the same today as it was when the Culver/Sackett family occupied the property. Below is an excerpt used with the permission of Susan Iverson from the application that was filed by Susan Iverson of the North Haven Historical Society with the State of Connecticut for the property to be included in the Connecticut State Register of Historic Places:

“The Martha Culver House is a two-story late Greek Revival structure with an attached one and a half story wing. The main structure has a full width wood porch on the front and a one-bay porch and door on the wing. The Martha Culver House has a gabled roof. The walls are made of local brick and stone, with interior wood-frame construction. There are three chimneys, two located in the interior original to 1858, and one exterior chimney built in the mid twentieth century. Both porches have wood ornamental trim and concrete slab floors. Window openings have brownstone lintels and sills with some granite or bluestone used at the rear and south sides. Windows are predominantly double hung six over six sash.
The interior of the building retains the characteristics of a Greek Revival residence. The front door opens onto a side hall which in turn opens into two principal rooms, a front parlor and a rear parlor, connected by pocket doors. The first floor of the wing to the south of the main block consists of a parlor with a staircase on the north wall.
Notable features of the first floor include matching entry doors with upper glass lights over two flat panels, both are historic components. There are pocket doors between the front and rear parlors in the main part of the house, wood-strip floors, plaster walls, and windows with wide molded trim and deep sills characteristic of the mid-nineteenth century. Ceilings include some tin surfaces in some areas. The stair to the second floor of the main block has a turned newel and baluster rail also characteristic of the period.”

The second story contained two rooms that have since been combined into one room and all changes that were made to the home were due to the transition of the home from a private residence to a public library.

Martha Culver House interior. Used with permission from Susan Iverson.

Importance to North Haven

The brick making industry was a critical part of the economic development of the town of North Haven and the cultural diversity of the area due to the immigration of people from various nationalities to the town to find work in the brickyards. The Martha Culver house was built from the local red brick and stone that was common in this area and is a beautiful representation of this very important period of time in North Haven’s history. Also, the home continued to be an important part of the town because it was operated as a branch library for the people of North Haven for many years and it now continues on as a museum that is run by the North Haven Historical Society. As the town has lost many of its historic homes to modern development or lack of upkeep, the Martha Culver property provides the people of North Haven a window to the past.

References
North Haven Historical Society. Martha Louisa Culver Smith. Retrieved February 12, 2018 fromhttps://northhavenhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com/historicproperties/martha-culver-house/

North Haven Historical Society. Martha Culver House. Retrieved February 12, 2018 from https://northhavenhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com/people-of-interest/martha-louisa-culver-smith/

Digital Images courtesy of photographer, Susan Iverson.