Charles Ives House
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Charles Ives House
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East profile and south (rear) elevation, 2008
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| Location | 7 Mountainville Road, Danbury, CT |
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| Coordinates | 41°22′53″N 73°26′41″W / 41.38139°N 73.44472°WCoordinates: 41°22′53″N 73°26′41″W / 41.38139°N 73.44472°W |
| Area | 7 acres (2.8 ha) |
| Built | 1780 |
| NRHP Reference # | 76001968 |
| Added to NRHP | April 26, 1976 |
The Charles Ives House, also known as Charles Ives Birthplace, is located on Mountainville Avenue in Danbury, Connecticut, United States. It is a wooden frame structure built in 1780 and expanded on since. Over the course of the 19th century it was the residence of several generations of Iveses, a family important in the city's history. In 1874 it was the birthplace of Charles Ives, who became an internationally recognized composer in the early 20th century.
It was originally on Main Street, but was moved twice when two local banks needed to expand. The second move took it to near the current location, west of Rogers Park. It was moved a third time to allow for the construction of a nearby school. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. Today it is owned by the Danbury Museum and Historical Society, which is seeking to restore it and reopen it as a museum.
The house is located on a seven-acre (3 ha) parcel on the east side of Mountainville Road just south of where Southern Boulevard splits off and Mountainville Avenue becomes Mountainville Road. It is south of Rogers Park and west of Rogers Park Junior High School. A small pond separates those two buildings. To the north the land is generally level and open, with single-family homes on the streets giving way to baseball diamonds in the park. South of the house the land rises to a hill and becomes wooded, with larger houses.
A driveway comes into the south side of the house, and large mature trees shelter its north. The building itself is a one-and-a-half-story wood frame structure on a brick foundation sided in clapboard with beaded corner boards in two sections. Two brick chimneys pierce the roof of the western wing.
The main section has a gambrel roof, with slightly overhanging eaves and raked cornice on its eastern side. The east (front) entrance is located in a gabled portico with its roof supported by two square fluted columns with similar capitals. Two Corinthinan pilasters join it to the house. Its closed pediment has a half-round molded dentil course. Three dormer windows with semicircular fanlights pierce the roof's lower slant at the front.
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