Connell House
Historical Marker: Click for larger view.
If these walls could talk
The Connell House is the oldest home in Martin County, built by the Carmelite Priests while they were constructing the Convent. It started off as a two room house, but when the Connell family took ownership of the house and the family began to grow, 8 in all, the house grew with it.
Temporarily Closed!
Due to problems with the foundation of the house, the Connell house is closed to tours. The Museum Board is working on plans to have the foundation fixed and the siding repaired then painted. We have the trees removed and the flower bed borders have been taken out to help promote drainage. Many of the trees that were planted close to the house have already been removed to help with drainage off the roof. Needles and leaves were causing certain areas of the roof not to drain. The old wooden fence has been taken down and we are looking at a new fence; as well as new landscaping. We will also have a new security system installed as soon as possible, due to a recent break-in.
You can see some of the water damage in this photo.
Trees have been removed!
future goals
The Museum Board hopes that with community support we can have the Connell House back open to the public as soon as possible. We would like the house to be a major part of our exhibits and the grounds to be used for special events. The Board and the Museum Director will keep the public apprised of the progress on the Connell House, just know that we are doing everything that we can to have it reopened as soon as possible. You can see in the gallery below that we have a lot of work to do to the house, but with your support and patients, we hope to have it open soon.
Windmill before repairs!
This is a gallery of what we started with!
ALMOST THERE
Restoration is almost complete, just a few more small things need to be done to finish our work on the Connell House. We want to get the floors refinished with urethane and get our window treatments up and we will then be able to move the furniture back in. So what has been done so far? First we had to fix the foundation, pouring a cement footer all the way around the house, removing most of the sidewalks to promote proper drainage, and replacing much of the lower siding due to water damage. Once the structural issues had been taken care of we began to work on the interior. The interior has been remodeled fixing water damage and structural issues on the interior. The lawn has been completely redone and the windmill has been rebuilt and is now up. We are so thankful for the community support that helped us make the Connell House something to be proud of! We are hoping to have the house open for tours by the end of July or the first of August 2021.
House is Done!
We have finished construction on the Connell House, the restored Windmill is up and it is now open to visitors. If you would like to walk through the house call the museum or come by and visit the museum and ask our Exucitive Director for a tour. We are now working on the garage and soon a fence will go up around the property. Thank you again to all who helped make this possible.
