The Chafee Art Center building?s construction started in 1892 and was completed in 1896. The building is a Queen Anne Victorian Mansion and was built by George Thrall Chafee who was prominent businessman at the time. The Chafee Art Center features a wide variety of European and Middle Eastern architectural approach most known to wealthy Americans at the time who were fortunate enough to have traveled greatly.

Having a Syrian arch on the front entrance, with machine-cut marble blocks, a three-story corner tower with gothic windows and an elegant porte cochere gives the museum a very distinctive feature. Chaffee?s family was one of the first few families in Rutland to enjoy having a central heating, gas lighting and indoor plumbing.

In the present time the Chaffee Art Center offers visitors a one of a kind experience equal to that of the art that the museum contains. Everyone is also invited to enroll to the Chaffee Art Center?s studio school which has been the stepping stone of some of the most successful artists in the last 50 years.