The picture above was taken circa 1870 of a house at 1804 Boston Turnpike, possibly by Edmund Kleespies who lived there. It is very near the glassworks noted in the National Register documents in this section; and is believed to be one of a row of 3 small houses owned in 1850 by Rufus B. Chamberlain and formerly occupied by glass workers.

The building still exists today; and is one of the houses in the National Glass Historic District (the only Glass District in the USA) and is the actual house behind which the Coventry Glass Works operated. It can be found on the map at right, and which can be found in the reproduced National Register documents by clicking here.

Although the house is still there, the dam in front of it no longer is. The faint track is where Route 44 runs through today.

Our thanks to Connecticut author Barbara Thrall Hambach, Mr. Kleespies' grand-daughter, for providing the picture to us. AND ALSO for providing a newspaper interview with Mr. Kleespies shortly before his death, which you can access by clicking Edmund Kleespies Interview.

Note by Glass Museum President Noel Tomas: The factory site remains relatively untouched underground, waiting to be excavated and examined. The Museum would like to acquire the house and property if its availability works out and our institution can obtain funds to accomplish either its purchase or its preservation through another means. The site acquisition and preservation are strongly supported by both the past and present CT State Archeologists and by the Friends of the Office of State Archaeology (FOSA) which supports them. The property and structures are the key site for which the National Register named the area the National Historic Glass Factory District.