E. Madison Road

The Leonard Hull House is set on a triangular wooded lot bordered by Madison Road on the west and Cherry Lane on the east.

  • Record ID: 35
  • Address: E. Madison Road
  • Current Owner: de McCarthy (deceased March 1984), Eugene G. B.
  • Name of Building:
  • Historic Name: Leonard Hull House
  • Download PDF of Original Record

Notable Features

Peculiarly situated upon a small hill amid large rock formations, the three-bay facade appears to face south away from the road. Throughout the house the fenestration
has an unbalanced arrangement. The facade exhibits a side entrance flanked by two (boarded-up) windows. The second story features two asymmetrically placed, smaller windows of different sizes. The east elevation features overhanging eaves and an interesting placement of windows in the gable end; a center tripartite sash flanked by two smaller square windows and topped by two similar square windows. A single story, shed-roofed ell has been added to the western elevation. The only notable architectural detailing is the bracketed entrance hood which protects the facade doorway.

Historical or Architectural Importance

This unusual 1 1/2 story, early nineteenth-century, Domestic-style building was erected in 1837 by Leonard Hull. Sided in clapboards, the post-and-beam framing system rests on a brownstone foundation. The house is capped by an asphalt-shingled gable roof. In 1837 Leonard Hull received a plot of land from his mother, Hannah Hull, on which he erected this house. Hull (1807-1867), the son of Eliakim Hull Jr., married Emily Chalker in 1834 and later married Catherine Miller of Middlefield. It is not known what happened to Hull’s first wife, but upon his death in 1867, Emily Chalker Hull reappeared at Middletown’s Probate Court with a petition asking that the dower be set out to her. The Court after “considering questions heard and evidence presented, found that when said Emily Hull absented herself from her husband, she is no longer entitled to the real estate of Leonard Hull” (MPR 23:264). In 1887 the de McCarthy family purchased the house which is still owned by descendants of that family. Although the house can not be identified with any particular architectural style, it is an interesting and unusual representation of an early nineteenth-century vernacular dwelling.