Is there a date associated with it? As it could be in a surrounding town that was once part of New Haven.

Quite a structure!

Did you try the New Haven historical society?

maybe the House was on Forest and was called Edgewood. Edgewood parks were made from the farm land.

Try the https://nhpt.org/

Try Donald Grant Mitchell

From this link it looks like Edward A. Mitchell was the postmaster of New Haven and lived from 1815-1876.

https://siegelauctions.com/display_census.php?id=248

If you google his name you come up with a lot of links to stamp collecting websites. It sounds like he was a prominent political figure during his time. I browsed a little but couldn't find any reference to where his house was.

That building looks very familiar but I can’t place it

I’m probably just imagining it though. New haven colony historical society might know, and the New Haven Museum. It has nice historical archives

Ask the reference librarian at your local library—no matter how far you are from New Haven.

I have this book at home but I'm away right now. It may help you out:

New Haven: A Guide to Architecture and Urban Design: 15 Illustrated Tours Elizabeth Mills Brown

Wow! Absolutely beautiful!

I think this house might be your house- it was the Townsend mansion : https://www.nhregister.com/news/article/New-Haven-s-historic-Townsend-mansion-property-16323868.php

Agree. Is it maybe one of the now-Yale buildings that’s on the upper part of Prospect Street?

I wondered too, did a search on the name and prospect st. Also considered hillhouse avenue but nothing came up. I wonder if the house is now gone, but let’s not think that yet.

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.

Deep procrastinating right now and did a bit of digging. Per this Connecticut Evening Post Annual from 1885, Charles L. Mitchell, the son of Edward A. Mitchell, lived at an estate called "Fernhurst," which had been in his family for three generations. Googling the name of the estate on Google came up with this stereograph from the NYPL, which looks to be taken from the lawn of the same building. You can see the right side of the photograph matches up with what's in the stereograph.

That's as far as I think it can be taken without the help of the New Haven Museum as other commenters have stated. Still doesn't answer where in New Haven this is, but there's some more info for you if you're looking to dig further.

House looks different to me and it looks like the Townshend family owned that propert from the 1700s until recently but there is a 1901 directory with a Fernhurst entry that gives a Townsend Avenue address. Maybe nearby? Edit: another record referring to fernhurst on Townsend Ave, 1902 and one more

Very cool. Nice work. Sad to hear it is no longer around

Tremendous work

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!!

Thank you thank you!! I posted some brief context in a comment above in your interested. I’m definitely going to be digging further and contacting the New Haven museum. I’ve rummaged through their website so far but that’s about it.

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!

Is that the old Townshend mansion on Townsend Avenue?