The Charles Cheney Mansion has broken the record for the highest price in Manchester in 20 years, according to SmartMLS.
The mansion, located at 131 Hartford Road, recently sold for $990,000.
Built in 1864 by silk magnate Charles Cheney, it was designed by architect Hammatt Billings and was frequently visited by Mark Twain in the early 1900s.
There is even a letter of correspondence between Twain and Cheney. According to the realtor, local lore suggests there was friendly competition between Frank Cheney – Charles’ son – and Twain over who could build the most grandiose residence.
Property of the week: Historic CT Tudor mansion built by an American industrialist
Containing nearly 6,000 square feet, eight bedrooms five bathrooms and on over five acres, the home has been preserved by its previous owners to keep its mid-1800s character. It has the original hardwood floors, working fireplaces and original trim work and built-ins. It also has a “great lawn,” nine garage bays and a koi pond.
Twain’s Hartford home was on Farmington Avenue and it now open to the public as a museum. Twain had friends and business prospects in Hartford, so he and Olivia happily made plans to move there for good with their daughter buying land in that Nook Farm part of town.
Twain wrote some of his most famous books, including “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” as a Hartford resident from the mid-1870s until the early 1890s.
The Cheney Mansion seller was represented by the Anderson Team of William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty.
