132 Main Street - Hubert Hart House

1885 Queen-Anne/Stick Style

A very ornate house with a blend of two Victorian styles of residential architecture. An asymmetrical floor plan and facade with a variety of exterior siding and decorative trim components, and a turret tower. The large and ornate upper gable verge boards house a kings cross and corbel brackets, and the front porch is framed with original fretwork.

This large, elaborate house was built by prominent businessman and inventor Hubert Chauncey Hart around 1885. His wife, Evaline M. (Moses) Hart, previously purchased the John Thompson House (134 Main Street) in 1874 for $5,700; Rufus Stone is depicted as resident of that house on the 1855 Smith’s Map of Hartford County, and was an owner of the Uncas Mill in Unionville, producer of paper, which eventually became the Platner and Porter Manufacturing Company. The Harts lived there until 1885, when they moved it to the rear of the lot and erected this grander house. A mortgage, with the Farmington Savings Bank, in March 1885, for $5000, mentions a lot with “two dwelling houses”. Hart was a descendant of Deacon Stephen Hart, one of the founders of Hartford and Farmington. In 1860, Hubert went to work in his father’s (“Deacon” Chauncey Hart) trap shop, which manufactured rakes and animal traps. In 1867, his father made Hubert a partner in his business, known as C.S. Hart & Sons. Between 1876 and 1880, Hubert worked for P & F. Corbin Company of New Britain, where he had sold one of his inventions, a carpenter’s bit brace. Around 1880 he returned to Unionville and worked in the cutlery business; Hart’s business produced forks, knives, spoons, and edge tools. In 1884 he joined with Andrew Upson to establish the firm of Upson & Hart, another cutlery manufacturer. After leaving the cutlery business, Hart invented a machine that made washers from wire and formed the Spencer Wire Company, Worcester, MA. The invention proved to be lucrative and by 1919 the firm was manufacturing spring washers for automobiles. In 1905, Hart returned to cutlery when he organized the H.C. Hart Manufacturing Company which produced cutlery, pliers, can openers and the Supreme Adjustable Razor. Hart patented over 100 inventions and served on numerous boards, many as president.