Roseland Cottage - the pinkest cottage you've ever seen

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Our 2nd stop today was Roseland Cottage in Woodstock, CT. Roseland Cottage was built in 1846, as we learned on the tour provided by Gloria, a Historic New England tour guide, by Henry Chandler Bowen. Bowen was born in Woodstock and then headed to New York to make his gajillions and hob-nob with politicians. He was quite involved with the Abolitionist movement and apparently used his clout and $$ to help Lincoln in his presidential bid. As a thank you, Lincoln assigned him the post of Tax Collector in New York. Anyway, he built this "cottage" in Woodstock so he could have lavish 4th of July parties each year. All other times during the year they lived in NY. The architecture is considered "Gothic Revival" - basically, Gothic with then-contemporary New England American flair. I only have pics of the outside, as inside pictures were not permitted.

Inside there were the most beautiful hand crafted porcelain door knobs...I WANT I WANT... and beautiful wallpapers. All of the furniture was original...only some rugs and a couple other items were reconstructions. There were also authentic hand written notes from the 1800s and a certificate with signature penned by Lincoln's hand hanging on the wall. Such a neat home.

In the back of the house there was a little cottage barn looking thing that houses the oldest bowling alley in the U.S. - they say. There's a spot down at the end of the alley for a servant or servant's child to stand and hand-replace each of the pins after each bowl.

4 different presidents 4th-of-July'd at the home. I had no idea we had this much history just a couple towns over. How cool to get to know the history of my home-area.

After the cottage, we headed over to the Vanilla Bean Cafe - Zagat rated & reviewed as "New England's Coziest Restaurant." Well, my vegetarian sandwich was quite nice...Mom LOVED her chowder & took down some Kentucky Bourbon Pie. All in all, thumbs up.

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