Peterson photo reception at Pardee-Morris House in New Haven Friday

Pardee-Morris House
325 Lighthouse Rd., New Haven, (203) 562-4183
Tom Peterson: New Haven Perspectives
Sundays, 1—4 p.m., through July 24, 2011.
Opening reception: Fri., July 15, 5:30—7 p.m.

Press release

The New Haven Museum announced that its Pardee-Morris House will be open to the public free of charge on Sundays in July and August from 1—4 p.m. During July, the Pardee-Morris House will feature New Haven Perspectives, a show of photographs by New Haven photographer Tom Peterson. The artist's reception for the show will be held this Friday, July 15, from 5:30—7 p.m.

Located at 325 Lighthouse Road on the city’s East Shore, the 6000 sq. ft. house, is one of the oldest surviving colonial structures in the state. The original Morris homestead house was built shortly after the founding of the New Haven Colony in the mid-17th century and was burned by the British during their invasion of New Haven in 1779. Once the invaders had been driven off, the Morris family rebuilt so that the structure as its stands today dates from about 1780. It was occupied by seven generations of the Morris family. Gradually, the family sold off parts of their original 170 acres, including the parcel sold to the United States government for construction of the lighthouse, and the house today sits on a little less than one acre. The property was acquired in 1915 by William Pardee, a collateral descendant of the Morris family, who wished to make it his home. At his death in 1918, the property was left to the New Haven Museum, then known as The New Haven Colony Historical Society.