Samuel Russell House

Samuel Wadsworth Russell House in Middletown, Connecticut is a landmark greek revival mansion built in 1828. It is now owned by Wesleyan University. Russell founded the trading firm of Russell & Company in Canton, China after serving there as trading representative of the Providence, Rhode Island firm of Edward Carrington & Company. Between 1818 and 1831 Russell's fortune was made in the illegal yet highly profitable importation of Turkish and Bengal opium into the port of Canton and the exportation of fine teas and silks from there to Europe and the United States. In 1828 when his house was built Russell was in Canton, and his friend Samuel D. Hubbard worked with Mrs. Russell to supervise the building of the house. In 1831 Russell returned to Middletown and his new home where he resided until his death in 1862.