{{short description|Historic house in Connecticut, United States}} {{Use American English|date=July 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=August 2023}}

{{Infobox NRHP | name = Henry C. Bowen House | nrhp_type = nhl | image = File:Roseland Cottage was built in 1846 in the Gothic Revival style as the summer home of Henry Chandler Bowen and family. The entire complex, with a boxwood parterre garden, an icehouse, garden house, and LCCN2011631587.jpg | caption = Roseland Cottage | location = 556 Route 169, Woodstock, Connecticut | coordinates = {{coord|41|56|56.72|N|71|58|36.64|W|display=inline,title}} | locmapin = Connecticut#USA | area = | built = 1846 | architect = Joseph Collins Wells; Edwin Eaton | architecture = Gothic Revival | designated_nrhp_type = October 5, 1992<ref name="nhlsum"/> | added = August 24, 1977<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|2007a}}</ref> | refnum = 77001414 | nrhp_type2 = cp | nocat = yes | designated_nrhp_type2 = January 6, 1999 | partof = Woodstock Hill Historic District | partof_refnum = 98001578 }}

'''Roseland Cottage''', also known as '''Henry C. Bowen House''' or as '''Bowen Cottage''', is a historic house located on Route 169 in Woodstock, Connecticut, United States. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977, and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1992. It is described as one of the best-preserved and best-documented Gothic summer houses in the nation, with virtually intact interior decorations.<ref name="nhlsum">{{cite web|url=http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1735&ResourceType=Building|title=Henry C. Bowen House|accessdate=2007-10-03|work=National Historic Landmark summary listing|publisher=National Park Service|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071009052212/http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1735&ResourceType=Building|archivedate=2007-10-09}}</ref><ref name="nrhpinv2">{{Cite web |author=Grady |first=Anne Andrus |date=November 1, 1991 |title=National Historic Landmark Nomination: Henry C. Bowen House (Roseland Cottage) |url={{NHLS url|id=77001414}} |publisher=National Park Service |format=pdf}} {{NHLS url|id=77001414|title=Accompanying 7 photos, exterior and interior, from c.1977, 1986, 1989 and undated.|photos=y}}&nbsp;{{small|(1.90&nbsp;MB)}}.</ref>

It is now owned by Historic New England, a non-profit organization that preserves the historical value of the house and operates it as a museum.

==History== Roseland Cottage was built in 1846 in the Gothic Revival style as the summer home of Henry Chandler Bowen and family. The entire complex, with a boxwood parterre garden, an icehouse, garden house, carriage barn, and the nation's oldest surviving indoor bowling alley, reflects the principles of writer and designer Andrew Jackson Downing. In his widely popular books, Downing stressed practicality along with the picturesque, and offered detailed instructions on room function, sanitation, and landscaping.

Beginning in 1870, the largest Fourth of July celebrations in the United States were held at Roseland Cottage. Four United States Presidents visited Bowen's summer home as his guests and speakers for these celebrations: Ulysses S. Grant, Benjamin Harrison, Rutherford B. Hayes, and William McKinley. Other prominent visitors included Henry Ward Beecher, Julia Ward Howe, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., and John C. Frémont.<ref name="history">[http://www.townofwoodstock.com/history.html] "A Brief History of Woodstock" Web page on the Woodstock, Connecticut official town Web site, accessed July 30, 2006.</ref> The home and gardens on one of these occasions were described in a local newspaper in 1887: {{blockquote|As one approached the house, the park in front of Roseland Cottage and the entire lawn appeared to be a mass of light with the Japanese lanterns of every conceivable shape hanging from the trees and every object that would support them, and colored lanterns supported upon sticks intermingled with them.<ref>Emmet, Alan. ''So Fine a Prospect: Historic New England Gardens''. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1996: 69. {{ISBN|0-87451-749-4}}</ref>}}

Today the house remains in excellent historic condition, with original Gothic furniture and embossed Lincrusta Walton wall decoration. The house, known locally as The Pink House, is currently painted coral pink, and located on Woodstock Hill Common. Roseland's parterre garden contain twenty-one flowerbeds with more than 4,000 annuals bordered in boxwood, in their original 1850 pattern, and now form part of Connecticut's Historic Gardens.

The house is a contributing property within NRHP-listed Woodstock Hill Historic District.<ref name="nrhpdoc">{{cite web |author=Clouette |first=Bruce |last2=Hoang |first2=Tinh |name-list-style=and |date=September 8, 1997 |title=National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Woodstock Hill Historic District |url={{NRHP url|id=98001578}} |publisher=National Park Service}} {{NRHP url|id=98001578|title=Accompanying photos|photos=y}}.</ref>

==Gallery== <gallery heights=212 widths=270> Roseland Cottage (Bowen Cottage) - interior view.jpg|Interior view Roseland Cottage (Bowen Cottage) - entryway.jpg|Entryway detail Benjamin Harrison and large group at Roseland Cottage - DPLA - 6f621e21a20b5083a4b22d44e6604e56 (page 1).jpg|Benjamin Harrison and large group at Roseland Cottage Roseland Cottage, Woodstock, CT - 1909.jpg|Roseland Cottage on a postcard sent in 1909 Roseland Cottage and Garden, Woodstock, CT 2020.jpg|Cottage and garden (2020) Roseland Cottage, Woodstock, CT 2020.jpg|Exterior (2020) Roseland Cottage National Historic Landmark Marker.jpg|National Historic Landmark marker INTERIOR FRONT PARLOR - Bowen House, Woodstock, Windham County, CT HABS CONN,8-WOOD,1-12.tif|Interior, front parlor </gallery>

==See also== *List of National Historic Landmarks in Connecticut *National Register of Historic Places listings in Windham County, Connecticut

== References == {{reflist}}

== External links == {{Commons category|Roseland Cottage}} * [https://www.historicnewengland.org/property/roseland-cottage/ Historic New England website] * [http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/hhh.ct0347 Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress) - Bowen Cottage]

{{NHLs in CT}} {{NRHP in Windham County, Connecticut}} {{Historic New England}}

Category:Woodstock, Connecticut Category:Historic house museums in Connecticut Category:Museums in Windham County, Connecticut Category:National Historic Landmarks in Connecticut Category:Carpenter Gothic houses in the United States Category:Houses completed in 1846 Category:Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut Category:Houses in Windham County, Connecticut Category:National Register of Historic Places in Windham County, Connecticut Category:Historic New England Category:Historic district contributing properties in Windham County, Connecticut