Design for a Cottage

Around 1845, Bowen hired Joseph C. Wells, a young English architect practicing in New York City, to design the house. Wells situated the complex on two and a half acres across from the town common, landscaped according to the principles of A. J. Downing. The estate would grow to six acres by the 1880s. Wells also worked with Bowen on his store in Manhattan, and on Plymouth Congregational Church in Brooklyn. Prominent in his field, Wells was one of the founders of the American Institute of Architects.