The Charles Ives House in Danbury, Connecticut was the birthplace of the man many consider to be the America's greatest classical composer. A one-and-a-half story structure built in 1780 it was home to several generations of Iveses who were prominent in Danbury's history. Charles Ives was born here in 1874 who would bring the greatest renown to the family name.
During the Civil War, Charles' father George Edward Ives at seventeen was the youngest band master in the Union Army. He was a gifted music teacher who performed in a variety of bands as bandmaster and cornet player in Danbury, and taught his son to enjoy a wide range of musical compositions and combinations of sound.
When young Charles was only eight years old, he began playing bass drum in one of his father's bands. When he was fourteen, his father performed one of his son's first songs, "Holiday Quckstep" with a theater orchestra at an opera house in Danbury. At age fifteen, he became the youngest salaried organist in Connecticut playing at a nearby church.
In 1894 at twenty, Charles Ives left Danbury to attend Yale where his formal musical training began. Although he went on to establish a very successful insurance company Charles Ives composed music during his spare time. He actually heard very little of his compositions ever performed during his lifetime because his work would not become fully appreciated by the public until later in the twentieth century.
The original wood frame of the home was built in 1780 by Thomas Tucker, but was largely burned in the 1820's during a fire. Isaac Ives purchased the property and what remained of the residence in 1826 and rebuilt it as a Federal-style house.
It was originally located on Danbury's Main Street but was moved when two banks needed to expand and the Ives felt the house's location had become more urban and no longer felt the same as had originally inspired his music.
Located today on seven acres of land on the east side of Mountainville Road, the one-and-a-half story wood frame house has white clapboard siding with a gambrel roof and two brick chimneys. It has slightly overhanging eaves, with the main entrance located in a gabled portico with two Corinthian pilasters supporting it. Three windows with semicircular fanlights intersect the roof's lower reaches on the front.
A western wing projects from the main house on the side, and the north side of the house has a porch with columns of a similar style as those on the front entrance. On the south is a small one-story three-bay addition.
The home's interior has been extensively refinished with none of the original finishes still visible. The house's woodwork is Victorian with lath and plaster walls and tongue and groove hardwood floors.
Charles Ives is widely considered to be America's greatest classical composer. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, today it is operated as a museum by the Danbury Museum and Historical Society making the Charles Ives House one of Danbury, Connecticut's most important historic homes.
Steve Penny author of Hiring The Best People writes on the best places for your family to live in Connecticut. If you are looking for Danbury CT Houses please visit http://www.Prudentialct.com
Source: http://articles.submityourarticle.com/danbury-ct-historic-homes-charles-ives-house-312972
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