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brew-ski t1_j5rpoin wrote

The house style is Second Empire, which was fashionable in the 1860s to 1870s. According to the 1869 Price & Lee City Directory, there was an Edward A. Mitchell who was quite rich (see p. 47), earning $30,273, or about $661,000 in 2023 dollars. His home (see p. 633) is listed as 133 Wooster St. But Wooster Square was already quite built up by then, so I doubt the pictured house is at that address. The 1886 Sanborn map shows a very different (and smaller) building shape at 133 Wooster.

I don't feel like doing more digging tonight, but those are both pretty solid reference materials I linked to, if you want to do more research on your own. You could also reach out to the New Haven Museum. Best of luck!

Update: He's buried in Evergreen Cemetery, which is on the western side of the city. There were/are a lot of grand homes near Edgewood Park, so this home may have been out that way.

Update: He died in his country home, Fernhurst, identified by /u/whathuhwhatwhen. Fernhurst was in East Haven.

Update: success! I followed up on /u/tigerraaaaandy's lead that the home was owned by Frank Kimberly as of 1902, who was having steam heating installed for the home and 7 greenhouses. Further, that Frank Kimberly owned a home on the corner of Townsend and Munn (directory entry). I looked up the 1911 Atlas of New Haven, and at that corner, you can see the outline of a large home, as well as 7 outbuildings that could well be greenhouses. The property is marked as belonging to Frank H. Kimberly. Munn St has since been renamed as a continuation of Fort Hale Road, and Hall St has been added, so it's a little hard to say precisely where it was. There are no homes remotely like this photo on Townsend in the vicinity of Fort Hale Road or Hall Street, so I conclude that the home was there, but no longer exists.

Update: and for the curious, while that area is now the East Shore neighborhood of New Haven, in 1876 it was part of East Haven. When East Haven could no longer afford to maintain the bridge that's where the Rte. 1 bridge over the Quinnipiac is today (and that Charles Mitchell helped oversee its funding and construction), East Haven sold off land east of the Quinnipiac to New Haven to pay its debts. That's why Morris Cove, East Shore, the Annex, Fair Haven Heights, and Quinnipiac Meadows are now part of New Haven.

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saturnmarsjupiter OP t1_j5vmvhh wrote

I am so grateful for this information. Thank you! To give a little context, the full writing under the picture says “ residence at New Haven, Connecticut of Edward A. Mitchell, an uncle of Samuel Hinman.”

This photo comes from a genealogy book my great grandmother complied. The family tree in the book starts with Samuels parents, but no birth or death dates for them, just names.

Samuel hinman is my 5th great grandfather and he lived 1839-1890. His mother died when he was 12 in 1851. I’m assuming durning this time period it was more difficult for a single father, so presumably he put him in boarding school of sorts and then it seems he became completely distant from his father. There’s accounts about his life from his children and people that knew him but no mention of his parents. In my family book, there are no other pictures in the book that pertain to Samuels elders or his childhood or any “Mitchell’s”.

Samuel was a translator between the Indians and the US government. There are articles written about him that have his parents as Tom and Mary of New England descent. (Author was probably being lazy, didn’t want to dig into the genealogy and picked two makes no one would question.)

Later on in my research I found one of Samuels marriage licenses that listed his dads initials as H.B. Hinman and long story short, I found out who his parents were. And was able to trace the hinman side back to before they came to America. It’s a very well documented family. The fact the genealogy and tree got so obscured between him and his parents frustrated me. When my great grandma did all her research and complied this book, she never got back further than his parents, presumably because these publications wrongly list his parents name. So I want to reach out to the place the publications came from.

I discovered Samuels mothers maiden name was Mitchell, which made the photo of this house much more interesting. I had assumed his connection to his mothers family stopped when she passed but maybe not. The photo of the house always fascinated me. From the details of the actual build to the people on the front lawn. I’ve wondered about it for so long and this has really given me some head way. I’ll come back with any updates. Thank you, thank you!!

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brew-ski t1_j5w7ioa wrote

Oh that's so cool! I'm glad I was able to help. My partner and I had a fun time researching it yesterday. Best of luck with your future genealogical adventures!

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