664 Longmeadow Street (#23 The "New" Nathaniel Ely House - 1856)

This house, built in 1856, is constructed of native brick painted white. The quoins and dentil moldings are 18th century in flavor, but the other embellishments appear to be post Civil War: the veranda with its bold decorative detail, the balustrade below the enlarged, stylized onion shaped finials, floor to ceiling Italianate main floor windows and upstairs rounded Gothic Revival windows. The Thomas Bliss House (#21) originally stood on this site. This house was built for Nathaniel, a member of the prominent Ely family, as a wedding gift from his father. The Elys were among the earliest settlers to the Connecticut River Valley. The family owned extensive lands both "on the hill" and in the meadows. This house once boasted large land holdings and had one of the best examples of a formal English garden in the area.