Statement of Significance (as of designation - April 19, 1994):
The drama and avant-garde thrust that A. Everett Austin, Jr. (1900-1957) brought to his work as an innovative museum director (Wadsworth Atheneum, 1927-1944) are fully expressed in his house. Behind a facade that revives Scamozzi, the house combines the disparate Baroque and International styles, both of which Austin championed at the musuem. The social activities at this house brought together an international group of pioneering figures in the arts, attracted to Hartford by Austin's revolutionary exhibitions an programs at the Atheneum.