2026 Madison Historical Society Holiday Ornament — The Allis-Bushnell House, 1785

Other Madison Historical Society Ornaments

A three-inch faceted crystal round printed with a pen-and-ink drawing of the Allis-Bushnell House, the Madison Historical Society’s 1785 house museum on the Boston Post Road, hand-lettered with its name and date. Each ornament arrives in a white or gold gift box with a ribbon, ready to hang or to give.

Aaron Blatchley bought four acres on what was then Boston Street in April 1785, and by the time he sold the property in December 1789 a dwelling house stood on it. It began as a story and a half — two large rooms at the front, kitchen and chamber behind, four small rooms tucked under the eaves. No one recorded when the front roof was raised to make a full second story, and the Victorian wing on the east came later, probably after the Civil War.

Nathaniel Allis Jr. brought his family back from Massachusetts and bought the house in 1793. Nathan and Chloe Bushnell bought it in 1825 for thirteen hundred dollars, barn and nineteen and a half acres included, and their youngest child, Cornelius, was born in it — the shipbuilder and railroad man who put his own money and nerve behind the ironclad U.S.S. Monitor. Later the family kept it as a summer gathering place and let it to tenants, one of whom opened a tearoom the local paper called unprecedented for Madison. The newly formed Historical Society began leasing the house in 1917, the Bushnells asking only that the taxes be paid, and bought it outright in July 1920.

One of three ornaments issued for 2026, the Society’s bicentennial year, each dated to the year.

Sold at the Madison Center for Culture & History at Lee’s Academy, 14 Meetinghouse Lane, Madison, CT. The Allis-Bushnell House is at 853 Boston Post Road; admission is free.

About the Madison Historical Society

The Madison Historical Society preserves, interprets, and celebrates the stories of the town as told through its people, artifacts, architecture, and landscapes. It sponsors public programs, maintains its historic properties and collection, and advocates for the preservation of Madison’s historic structures and places.

The Society was founded in 1917 after a chance conversation between two residents on a summer afternoon, and drew more than a hundred charter members within weeks. It acquired the Allis-Bushnell House in its first years, later saved Lee’s Academy — Madison’s first high school — from demolition and moved it to the town green, and today also stewards the Smallpox Burying Ground. It is the oldest civic organization in Madison.

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14 Meetinghouse Lane, Madison, CT 06443
203.245.4567
office@madisonhistory.org

Below is an excerpt from our Madison, Connecticut page. For fuller town context, see the complete Madison history page.