Truell Evans House

Built circa 1890 for J. V. A. Craighead, who worked in the oil industry in NYC, this home is best known as the Violet Truell Evans House (aka Mrs. Noel G. Evans), a native of Plainfield. The house is classified as a Victorian Vernacular with hints of Queen Anne. Over the years, additions have been put on, such as the triple-story sunroom, which was once two stories with a third-floor balcony and a staircase that ran up the roofline to a widow’s walk porch. Violet’s mother owned and operated Truell Manor, later known as the Netherwood Hotel. There she met her husband, an English banker, and they moved to the Crescent Avenue area, where they bought a house on Third Place in 1912.  Her son Tom has said that the idea of a Plainfield Symphony was born in their music room, where Violet and other neighbors would hold performances for Plainfield society. In a small room on the second floor of this Victorian home, 75-year-old Alexander Seidel created intricate engravings for one-of-a-kind Steuben Glass masterpieces that sell for thousands of dollars. A bachelor who fled Nazi Germany in 1939, Mr. Seidel crafted engravings for such treasured pieces as “The Great Ring of Canada,” which President Johnson presented to Canada in celebration of its centennial.

In recent years, the house has been occupied by artist Jenn Florencio. She has transformed the property from a three-family dwelling back into a single-family home and has added lush gardens in the side yard.