Built in 1785, the Allis-Bushnell House in Madison, Connecticut, is one of the town’s oldest surviving homes. It was once tied to prominent local families, including the Bushnells and Scrantons. By the 1920s and 1930s, the house had stood for well over a century — and photographs from that era give us a rare look inside.
The house embraced the Colonial Revival style, a movement that gained traction in the late 1800s and pushed for a return to the clean, practical design of early American homes. Furniture was chosen carefully — wooden chairs, tables, and handcrafted cabinets — some original to the house, others period reproductions.
The front rooms were photographed in 1924, revealing distinct color-coded spaces. The “green room” connected directly to the “pink room,” each furnished to reflect earlier American domestic life.
The west front room, known as the “blue room,” rounded out the main floor’s trio of named spaces. Textiles, ceramics, and paintings adorned the walls, many depicting scenes tied to the colonial and Revolutionary War periods.
The kitchen held cast iron cookware, ceramic crocks, and wooden utensils — tools that reflected generations of domestic work. A separate summer kitchen handled cooking during warmer months, keeping heat out of the main house.
By 1929, the green room was captured in a sweeping panoramic photograph, showing just how much detail had been preserved across the space.
The pink room, photographed again in 1929, continued to anchor the east end of the main floor. Its 1824 Geib piano remained a centerpiece — a tangible artifact from the early 19th century still present in a functioning room decades later.
By 1935, the green room and an upstairs bedroom were documented, showing the house’s continued role as a preserved historical space well into the mid-20th century.
