Athenwood and the Thomas W. Wood Studio

Infobox_nrhp | name =Athenwood and Thomas W. Wood Studio
nrhp_type =


caption = "Athenwood" looking west from Northfield Street
location= Montpelier, Vermont
lat_degrees =
long_degrees =
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architect= Thomas Waterman Wood
architecture= Carpenter Gothic
built =1850
added = June 13, 1974
governing_body = Private
refnum=74000259 cite web|url=http://www.nr.nps.gov/|title=National Register Information System|date=2007-01-23|work=National Register of Historic Places|publisher=National Park Service]

"Athenwood," located at Montpelier in the U.S. state of Vermont was the home of Thomas Waterman Wood (November 12, 1823 – April 14, 1903), American painter and native of Montpelier.

Wood built the house, 1850–1851, and named it "Athenwood" for his wife Minerva Robinson Wood. Minerva was the Roman goddess of wisdom, and Athena, her Greek counterpart. Located at 39 and 41 Northfield Street, the house and studio are private residences.

The wooden house is built in the Carpenter Gothic style, a part of the Gothic Revival architectural movement of the 19th century. Wood designed the house, and was likely influenced by popular pattern books circulated by A. J. Davis and Andrew Jackson Downing. Living for a part of the year in Boston, Wood built "Athenwood" as a summer home and workplace. The house was faced in shiplapping and the windows, eaves and porches trimmed in cut wooden pattern like upended petals, running grape leaves, and ivy. Trained as a cabinetmaker, Wood may have carved the wood trim himself. A small balcony on the east side of the house, entered from the second floor has elaborate Gothic balusters. Used as a private home, some of the original furnishings, including two small marble busts of Athena remain in the parlor.

Later, about 1880, Wood built a separate studio building just northwest of the house. It too is built in the Carpenter Gothic style but includes influences of Italianate architecture.

References

* Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration for the State of Vermont. "Vermont: A guide to the Green Mountain State." Houghton Mifflin: 1937.
* Merrill, Perry H. "Montpelier: The Capital City's History: 1780-1976." self published: 1976.

Gallery

External links

* http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/centralvermont/cv21.htm