Ada Brooks is born in Salem, Ohio on August 31, 1844.

Effie Brooks Pope is born on February 2, 1867. She adopts her paternal grandmother’s name in 1886 and thereafter she is known as Theodate Pope.

Theodate starts finishing school at Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, CT.

Alfred acquires his first Impressionist paintings: Claude Monet’s Grainstacks, White Frost Effect and View of Cap d’Antibes from the art gallery Boussod, Valadon et Cie., in Paris, France.

Following her debutante party, Theodate returns to Farmington and moves into the “O’Rourkery”, on High Street.

Alfred acquires Edgar Degas’s Jockeys from the art gallery Martin et Camentron in Paris This is one of the two Degas Jockey paintings that he acquired that year. The other one, an oil painting, left the collection after Alfred’s passing in 1936 when Theodate sold it to Durand-Ruel.

Alfred travels to Europe, where he purchases Mary Cassatt’s print Gathering Fruit, Edouard Manet’s The Guitar Player, Claude Monet’s Fishing Boats at Sea, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes’s Peace, and James McNeill Whistler’s Symphony in Violet and Blue and The Blue Wave, Biarritz.

Alfred Pope purchases 250 acres in Farmington, CT; instructs Theodate to contact architectural firm McKim, Mead & White to help develop her plans for the house and grounds. McKim, Mead & White is known for their iconic projects, mostly in New York City, such as Columbia University, the Brooklyn Museum, the Morgan Library, and more.

Hill-Stead is designed and constructed under Theodate’s direction from 1899-1901

On February 15, 1904, Theodate and friend Mary Hillard have first “sitting” with medium Leonora Piper in Boston. This marks the beginning of documentation of Theodate’s interest in psychical research.

The Popes purchase their first automobile, a White Steamer. The 1904 model sold for $2,500.

From 1907-1909, Theodate plans and builds Westover School in Middlebury, CT.

Fire destroys carriage barn and stable, laundry and butler’s quarters at Hill-Stead. The Popes rebuild immediately.

Henry James visits Hill-Stead on May 20, 1911.

Alfred Pope passes away at his home of Hill-Stead on August 5, 1913.

On March 3, 1915, Theodate attends a hearing about the Suffrage bill at the Connecticut State capitol.

Theodate becomes one of the first licensed female architects in the state of New York.

On December 21, 1916 Gordon Brockway passes away at age 4 from polio.

Theodate takes in two more wards, Paul Martin (age 10, in 1917) and Donald Carson (age 11, in 1918).

Theodate and John Riddle travel through China, Japan, Korea, and the Philippines from April through September of 1919.

Theodate, John, and” godsons”, as she called them, Donald Carson and Paul Martin go on a “Grand Tour” of Europe in June of 1920.

Avon Old Farms School, an all-boys boarding school, opens. Theodate designed and built the school from 1918 to 1926 in honor of her father, Alfred.

Through the Winter and Summer of 1935, Theodate and John tour through Europe and Egypt, where they visit the pyramids.

On June 8, 1945, Theodate leases use of Avon Old Farms School to the U.S. Army for a convalescent hospital for soldiers blinded during WWII.

Hill-Stead Museum opens to the public on April 17, 1947.

Dearest of Geniuses published, the first biography about Theodate Pope Riddle.

Hill-Stead Museum welcomes its 1 millionth visitor since opening as a museum in 1947.

The renovated Carriage Barn opens to the public in June of 2021, with a new state-of-the-art exhibition gallery.

To celebrate the 75th Anniversary of Hill-Stead opening as a museum, the museum held the first major exhibition in the new gallery, “Alfred Pope: An Evolution of Ingenuity”, reuniting works purchased when Alfred was living in Cleveland, Ohio.