Captain William Johnson House (1790). The Gambrel-roofed cape-style house at 29 Joshuatown Road is architecturally distinguished. It is the only surviving example in the state of a distinctive type of chimney vaulting: an arched passage through a split chimney, with an elaborate doorway surround at the back of the passage. The house was built c. 1790-1803 by Captain William Johnson. He was a mason and the second floor has a large arch-ceilinged room that was used as a Masonic Hall. The house also seems to have been an Underground Railroad Site, with many secret passageways that were presumably used to hide escaping slaves. The house was later bought by renowned Impressionist painter George Bruestle, whose work is currently featured in institutions such as the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Bruestle painted a beautiful landscape scene on the doorway surround, which is viewed immediately as one enters the home and remains to this day. The entryway painting, along with other pictures of the home, were featured in the U.S. Historic American Buildings Survey in 1937 and can be seen here, as well as the Library of Congress: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh/item/ct0194/
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