Features One of Connecticut’s Most Elaborate Federal Interiors
National Register of Historic Places, Sharon Valley Historic District
The Abel Wood House, circa 1795, is now permanently protected through Historic New England’s Preservation Easement Program. Founded in 1910, Historic New England is the oldest, largest, and most comprehensive regional heritage organization in the nation.
Preservation easements allow owners to retain private ownership while placing lasting restrictions on changes that could damage a property’s historic character, making them one of the most effective tools for protecting irreplaceable buildings. The preservation easement on the Abel Wood House protects the entire exterior, principal interior spaces, and surrounding landscape, ensuring the preservation of both its architectural integrity and rural setting.
Historic New England considers the Abel Wood House important and worthy of protection for its exceptionally elaborate Federal-era interior woodwork, drawing from period pattern books such as those of architect-builder Asher Benjamin, including rare carved alcove arches with expressive faces and scrolls. Combined with the property’s strong association with early 19th-century iron industry development in the Sharon Valley, it is a remarkable survivor of Connecticut’s vanishing past.
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