Timeline
The story of Linden Place spans more than 200 hundred years of American history and reflects the story of the country itself.
Below is a timeline of the major milestones from the time George DeWolf purchased the land in 1809 to the time the Friends of Linden Place assumed ownership in 1988.
Major Milestones
1809
George DeWolf purchased the land for his new home, Linden Place, from his mother-in-law, Mary Goodwin.
Elsewhere: Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln are born; James Madison becomes the fourth President of the United States; Mary Kies is the first American woman to be awarded a patent; Napoleon I of France is excommunicated; Joseph Haydn and Thomas Paine die
1810
George DeWolf builds Linden Place at a cost of $60,000. Russell Warren is the architect.
Elsewhere: Beethoven composes Fur Elise; Venezuela is the first South American country to proclaim independence from Spain; King George III is declared insane; John Jacob Astor forms the new Pacific Fur Company
1823
George DeWolf is no longer in residence at Linden Place and the house stands unoccupied.
Elsewhere: Pushkin begins work on "Eugene Onegin"; Simon Bolivar is named the President of Peru; the Monroe Doctrine is introduced
1826
Commercial Bank forecloses on the house due to failed mortgage payments. George DeWolf and his family flee to their sugar plantation in Cuba after facing financial ruin. The household effects go up for auction at George's uncle James' warehouse on Thames St.
Elsewhere: The Paris Stock Exchange opens; Thomas Jefferson and John Adams die
1828
James DeWolf, George's uncle, buys the house from Commerical Bank for $5,150.
Elsewhere: Schubert publishes "Winterreise"; the London zoo opens; the United States' Democratic Party is organized; Andrew Jackson is elected
1834
William Henry DeWolf buys Linden Place for $18,000 from his father, James DeWolf.
Elsewhere: Slavery is abolished in the British Empire; Athens becomes the capital of Greece; Samuel Taylor Coleridge dies; the Whig Party is formed
1854
William Henry DeWolf is appointed the US Consul at Dundee, Scotland and no longer lives at Linden Place. Later that year he dies in New York City, leaving Linden Place to his wife, Sarah.
Elsewhere: Crimean War begins; cholera epidemic in London; Louis Vuitton fashion label is founded; San Francisco Gas Company lights street lamps by coal gas for the first time; Boston Public Library is founded; the United States' Republican Party is formed
1855
Sarah DeWolf leases Linden Place to Capt. Wm Vars & Sons. The mansion becomes the DeWolf House Hotel and Capt. Vars in residence. A Livery Stable is built at the back of the property.
Elsewhere: Australia is granted self-governing status; Bates College is founded; Mount Sinai Hospital opens; Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" is published; Samuel Colt incorporates his Firearms Manufacturing Company and opens the Colt Armory in Hartford, CT
1865
Linden Place is put up for auction after Sarah DeWolf's death. Edward Colt of Hartford, CT (grandson of George DeWolf) wins the house at auction for $7,900.
Elsewhere: Wagner's opera "Tristan und Isolde" debuts; Salvation Army (originally The Christian Mission) is founded in London; Lewis Carroll publishes "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"; NY Stock Exchange opens its first permanent headquarters; American Civil War begins; 13th Amendment passes; Abraham Lincoln is assassinated
1866
Edward Colt undertakes to restore Linden Place to its original form, removing evidence of the hotel and tearing down the additions on the back that had been used as a dining room for the hotel. The home becomes the private residence of Theodora DeWolf Colt, Edward's mother and daughter of George DeWolf. Edward expands the property by buying adjacent lots on Wardwell Street.
Elsewhere: The United States Congress passes the Civil Rights Act of 1866; The ASPCA is founded in New York City; Butch Cassidy and HG Wells are born; Alfred Nobel invents dynamite in Germany
1867
Edward Colt sells Linden Place to LeBaron B. Colt and Samuel Pomeroy Colt for $9,790.44 each. Samuel Colt constructs the stables and carriage house on Wardwell Street.
Elsewhere: The United States purchases Alaska from Alexander II of Russia; the first issue of the women's fashion magazine "Harper's Bazaar" is published; Charles Dickens gives his first public reading in the United States; Frank Lloyd Wright and Marie Curie are born
1868
LeBaron Colt sells his half of the estate to Samuel P. Colt for $10,700. Samuel utilizes Linden Place as a summer home.
Elsewhere: Andrew Jackson is impeached; Memorial Day is observed in the United States for the first time; The 14th Amendment is ratified; Thomas Edison applies for his first patent; French geologist Louis Lartet discovers the first identified skeletons of Cro-Magnon; The world's first traffic signal lights are installed in London
1899
Samuel Colt undertakes a series of improvements to the property: the Summer House of Capt. John Collins' estate on the west side of Hope Street is purchased and relocated to Linden Place; plans for a greenhouse are announced; the ballroom is constructed using Philadelphia pressed brick
Elsewhere: Spanish-American War ends; Henry Ford incorporates the Detroit Automobile Company; the first ship-to-shore test of a wireless radio transmission is made; Duke Ellington, Fred Astaire, and Ernest Hemingway are born; Anton Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" premieres
1902
Samuel Colt erects a brick wall on Wardwell Street to match his new ballroom. The Mt. Hope Block, a building adjoining Linden Place and owned by Samuel Colt but rented for stores and tenements, is removed and relocated to Hope St. near the southwest corner of Bradford St.
Elsewhere: The 1st Conference of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance takes place in Washington, D.C.; the first movie theater in the United States opens; Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first American President to ride in an automobile; Langston Hughes is born
1906
Samuel Colt builds of a new two-story garage at the corner of Central St. and Wardwell St. The first floor houses the machine shop and second floor serves as an apartment for the chauffeur and his family. 15 statues arrive from France, along with 108 Norway maple trees, to be placed at Samuel's other property, Colt Farm (now Colt Sate Park).
Elsewhere: The San Francisco Earthquake on the San Andreas Fault destroys much of San Francisco, CA; Cunard liner RMS Lusitania is launched in Glasgow; vaccine for tuberculosis is first developed
1912
Samuel Colt continues his improvements on the property, laying mahogany and red birch floors in the halls on in first floor rooms, as well as adding three bathrooms. Marble tiles covering the front walk (originally from a Mediterranean quarry in the 1750s) were relaid in cement.
Elsewhere: The RMS Titanic strikes an iceberg in the northern Atlantic Ocean and sinks; The Girl Scouts of the USA is founded in Savannnah, GA; Fenway Park in Boston, MA opens; Edgar Rice Burroughs' character Tarzan first appears in "Tarzan of the Apes"
1921
Samuel Colt passes away, leaving Linden Place in a trust to his grandchildren.
Elsewhere: The Irish War of Independence is fought and Northern Ireland is established; the first radio baseball game is broadcast; Gucci is founded in Florence, Italy; Donna Reed and Deborah Kerr are born; Albert Einstein wins the Nobel Prize for Physics
1988
Elizabeth Stansfield, the last remaining grandchild of Samuel Colt, sells the property to the Friends of Linden Place.