Show House 2025
Click here to purchase tickets.
House tour tickets are $50 and include unlimited re-entry!
The Junior League of Hartford’s 16th Designer Show House is presented by CTC&G (Connecticut Cottages & Gardens), featuring honorary design chair Matthew Patrick Smyth.
HOURS: Friday, May 2nd is our opening night party! The house is open for tours May 3rd-23rd. Hours are 11AM-3PM and 5-8PM Wednesdays-Fridays, and 11AM-5PM Saturdays & Sundays. The house is closed Mondays & Tuesdays.
PARKING: Street parking is available on Prospect Avenue and many area side streets. There is also some street parking available on Asylum Avenue near the Elizabeth Park Little League fields. Please obey all posted parking signs. The city bus also drops off nearby, at Asylum & Prospect and Fern & Prospect.
SHOP THE SHOW HOUSE: Most of the items in the house are for sale, and a portion of the proceeds benefits the Junior League of Hartford. All items must be picked up at the Show House between May 27th and June 6th. Click here to browse the items for sale, or scan the QR code in each room as you tour. 15% OFF FINAL WEEK SALE – Prices are as marked. Valid only on sales 5/21 through the end of the Show House. No price adjustments on past sales. All sales are final.
Click here for answers to Frequently Asked Questions about the Show House.
Artwork by Amy Archambault Studio
Junior League of Hartford 2025 Designer Show House Journal
Our Sponsors
Media Sponsor: CTC&G (Connecticut Cottages & Gardens)
Design Sponsors:
John Boyle Decorating Centers
Hudson Valley Lighting Group
Ethan Allen
JennAir
TileAmerica
AKDO
Silver Sponsor:
ALTA Good Deeds Foundation
Bronze Sponsors:
CATIC Foundation
Hoffman Auto Group
About the Junior League of Hartford Designer Show House
The Designer Show House is the Junior League of Hartford’s signature fundraising event, and over the years has raised more than $1.7 million to support charitable projects and programs in the Greater Hartford Community. This highly anticipated event occurs every three years, and is unlike any event in Central Connecticut.
Every Show House, the Junior League spends many months searching for a notable home or estate in the Greater Hartford area, and selects designers to makeover the interior and grounds. After transformation, the public is invited to view the grand home that has been redesigned from the inside out. The Designer Show House is more than a home tour, it is an experience. Guests of the Show House are able to shop from vendors or purchase designer furnishings featured in the Designer Show House. A percentage of these sales go directly to the Junior League of Hartford.
Our 16th Designer Show House is dedicated to Mary Lynn Gorman. After participating in a Junior League Show House in Ohio, Mary Lynn brought the Show House to the Junior League of Hartford and co-chaired the first event in 1979. Mary Lynn passed away on December 19, 2023. She volunteered for decades with the Junior League and other local nonprofits in addition to her 30 year career in public relations with the Hartford Whalers & Wolf Pack and raising 4 sons. We are proud to continue her legacy in our 16th Show House, 46 years after her inaugural effort.
Funds raised from this event are used to fuel the League’s mission and charitable projects for the next 3 years. Our primary focus in the community is addressing the impact of systemic poverty on women and families in Greater Hartford. Funds raised at the Show House are deployed in grants to nonprofits making a difference against systemic poverty such as Journey Home, Inc. and the Diaper Bank of Connecticut, as well as in our own service projects. If you’d like to make a donation, click here.
We look forward to welcoming the public to our 16th Designer Show House!
Meet the Designers
- Alison V. Cummings – Newtown
- AMS Kitchens & Interiors – Cheshire
- Camden Grace Interiors – West Hartford
- Creative Contour Landscape Design – Middletown
- Ethan Allen – Canton
- Grace Galloway Design – West Hartford
- The Homemaker CT – West Hartford
- Kaitlin Smith Interiors – Watch Hill, RI
- Kate Smith Interiors – Farmington
- Kathryn Hunt Studio – West Hartford
- McCory Interiors – Burlington
- Mews Designs – West Hartford
- Mikel Welch Interiors + Lifestyle – New York, NY
- NEAT Method Hartford – Hartford
- Quiver Spirits – East Hartford
- Sabin Viehland – Washington
About 820 Prospect Avenue
The George W. Ellis House
820 Prospect Avenue
820 Prospect Avenue was built in 1902 for Travelers executive George W. Ellis and his family by famed Hartford architect Edward T. Hapgood. It is a Tudor revival home with Craftsman touches. Lovely original details include the unusual double front gables, half-timber construction, leaded glass doors and windows, and heart-shaped carved balusters.
Hapgood designed many stately homes in the West End of Hartford in the late 19th century. He also designed the original Travelers Insurance Company buildings, the Connecticut Appellate Court Building at 75 Elm Street, and the State Library and Supreme Court Building (with Donn Barber).
This is the Junior League of Hartford’s 3rd Designer Show House on Prospect Avenue. Prospect Avenue is the dividing line between Hartford and West Hartford. The Prospect Avenue Historic District covers 300 acres and approximately 240 historic homes. The homes were developed mainly by Hartford elites who relocated from downtown Hartford between 1895 and 1945, attracted by the views from Prospect Hill, the opening of the Hartford Golf Club in 1896, and the opening of Elizabeth Park in 1897. The 1993 Show House took place at 995 Prospect Avenue, West Hartford, a gated Georgian Colonial built in 1916 across the street from the Governor’s residence. The notoriety of the home’s late owner Ethel Donaghue led to a 45 minute wait to tour the house, rain or shine. The 1999 Show House took place at 1040 Prospect Avenue on the Hartford side, a 22-room Georgian Revival style house built in 1911 and previously owned by G. Fox President Beatrice Fox Auerbach. The Junior League of Hartford is excited to return to Prospect Avenue in 2025.
About the Junior League of Hartford
The Junior League of Hartford has been developing women to make a meaningful impact in the Greater Hartford community since 1921. We are a 100% volunteer organization of over 300 women. Our mission is to advance women’s leadership for meaningful community impact through volunteer action, collaboration, and training. The Junior League of Hartford builds women leaders while we build better communities and build friendships.
The Junior League movement extends far beyond Greater Hartford. We are part of the Association of Junior Leagues International, an organization of over 150,000 members across nearly 300 Leagues spanning 5 countries. The Junior League of Hartford is one of the world’s oldest chapters at 104 years old.
Our members are leaders inside and outside of the League. They come together, representing a range of life experiences, talents, skills, and – together – support our League, community organizations, and each other. Our members are women who are passionate about volunteering, looking to learn new skills and meet new people. As a training League, many women have learned how to serve on a non-profit board from the Junior League of Hartford and gone on to serve the community on boards of other organizations such as Interval House, My Sister’s Place, and the Aurora Foundation, found their own non-profits, and expand their leadership roles in their careers.
Our League also serves with many other notable community organizations such as My Sisters Place, Interval House, the Chrysalis Center, Gifts of Love, Loaves & Fishes, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Hartford and many others in one-off community impact projects where we give both volunteer time and other resources. These community partnerships allow the League the opportunity to give our members leadership experiences while leveraging members’ talent and skills to provide short-term support to other area nonprofits.
