Prospect Historical Society  

 Carol Brooks Named new President of the Prospect Historical Society. Email: prospecthistorical

societyct@gmail.

com

The Hotchkiss House

 The Hotchkiss House in Prospect Connecticut was owned by the Hotchkiss family for over 160 years, housing three generations of the family before becoming the headquarters of The Prospect Historical Society. The original structure of the farmhouse was built by Frederick Hotchkiss for his son, David Miles Hotchkiss, in 1819. During his lifetime, David Miles Hotchkiss, a town selectman and abolitionist, conducted lessons for a boarding school, The Select Academy, in one of the upstairs rooms of the house. David Miles's tenth child, David Bryant Hotchkiss, inherited the home from his father upon his death in 1878. Three of David Bryant's children, his son, Treat, and two of his daughters, Ruth and Mabel, never married and resided in the house for the entirety of their lives.

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The Hotchkiss Farmer

Treat, Ruth, and Mabel were the last of the Hotchkiss family to live in the house, and are well-remembered by long-time Prospect residents. After their deaths, the house was left to their nieces, Prospect residents Ruth and Nellie Cowdell. The Cowdell sisters sold the house and the surrounding property to the town of Prospect in 1980 and upon their deaths, the town received a bequest from the sisters for the upkeep of the house. The house was entered into the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

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