Amos Strong House (1805)

Possible dates for the construction of the house at 17 Church Street in Hebron include 1797, 1805, 1811 and 1815. The house is listed on the website of the Hebron Historic Properties Commission with the latter date and John Graves as the builder. The website also indicates that the owner of the house dated it to 1805 and attributed the building to Amos Strong, who owned a brick kiln. Strong sold the house in 1818 and it passed through many different owners during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

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Benanuel Bonfoey House (1808)

According to Portrait of a River Town: The History and Architecture of Haddam, Connecticut (2nd edition, 2001), by Janice P. Cunningham and Elizabeth A. Warner (p.194), the family of Benanuel Bonfoey (1755-1825) is thought to have come to Haddam after the expulsion of the Acadians from the Maritime Provinces of Canada by the British in 1755. Alternatively, one genealogical website indicates that Bonefoy’s father, Benanuel Bonfoey I, was born in Massachusetts in 1731 (or 1720) and served in the French and Indian War. His son, Benanuel Bonfoey II, was born in Haddam in 1755 and married Concurrence Smith (1759-1849) in 1779. Bonfoey was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, serving during the battles in New York state. As related in the Commemorative Biographical Record of Middlesex County, Connecticut (1903):

Benanuel Bonfoey often referred to the of the soldiers at Valley Forge so remarkable in the annals of that great war. He referred with pride to the fact of Gen. Washington’s concern for and care of his men and that he was like a father to the soldiers, cheering or inspiring them with hope as best could

After the war, Bonfoey built the house at 15 Jacoby Road in Haddam. Further west on the road are houses built by his wife’s relatives, members of the Smith family. After his death in 1825, the house was inherited by his son, Benanuel Bonfoey (1802-1894). The Commemorative Biographical Record of Middlesex County describes the construction of the house:

He built the house on Candlewood Hill in which his son, Benanuel, spent his long and useful life, dying at the age of ninety-two; this house is still standing and in use, serving to illustrate the stability with which the old time houses were constructed. When this Bonfoey homestead was built, the solid chimney was first erected, and then after the chimney was completed the house was built around it. The chimney was erected in 1804 and the house in 1808.

Tryon House (1800)

The house at 78 Ferry Lane in Glastonbury, near the Connecticut River, was built c. 1800 (with a much later rear addition). It is traditionally thought to have been a home of the Tryon family and it has been speculated that it might have been the home of Thomas Tryon, a ship’s carpenter, who is known to have lived in the neighborhood. He was master carpenter for the sloop Mary, built at a nearby shipyard in 1808.

Milo Hunt House (1790)

Today is the thirteenth anniversary of this website!

And this is the site’s 4,300th post of a Connecticut building!

Pictured above is the house at 782 Bantam Road (Route 202) in the Bantam section of Litchfield. It dates to 1790, with later additions. A sign on the side of the house attributes it to Milo Hunt (perhaps the Milo Hunt born in 1765?). In the Historical and Architectural Resources Survey for the Bantam/Milton area, done in 1987, the building is listed as the Benjamin Johnson House because Johnson (possibly the Benjamin Johnson who lived from 1763 to 1829?) owned the property from 1786 to 1790. The next owners were the Hunt family, followed by the Catlin, Munger, Wilmot and Stone families. In 1877 it was acquired by Edith Flynn, wife of Charles Flynn, a carriage-maker who was in a partnership with William Doyle. As related in The History of the Town of Litchfield, Connecticut, 1720-1920 (1920), by Alain C. White:

In 1876, C. F. Flynn and William Doyle formed the firm of Flynn and Doyle, took over the business of the earlier Litchfield Carriage Company, and, until 1911, carried on an extensive manufacture of carriages, wagons and sleighs, reaching in some years an output of $40,000. Their products were of a high standard and their market extended far beyond the state. In 1911, the Company was merged into the Flynn and Doyle Co., which was continued until the death of Mr. Flynn. Mr. Doyle carried on the business for another year, until 1918, when it was discontinued. In April, 1919, the factory was taken over by the Bantam Auto Repair Station.

Doyle bought the house from the Flynns in 1920 and it remained in his family until 1987. The house is now occupied by a law firm.

Daniel Barnum House (1790)

The house at 16 Main Street in Bethel is thought to have been built circa 1790 by Daniel Barnum, a joiner and cabinetmaker who was the cousin of P. T. Barnum‘s father, Philo. In 1825, Daniel Barnum sold the house to his daughter, Anna, and her husband, John Benedict III. The couple sold the house in 1844 to Dr. Hanford N. Bennett (1818-1868), who sold it in 1853 to another physician, Dr. Ransom Perry Lyon (1826-1863). During the Civil War, Dr. Lyon was a surgeon in the 28th Regiment Connecticut Volunteer Infantry. He died during the siege of Port Hudson, Louisiana. His widow, Sophia, sold the house in 1871 to the Danbury and Norwalk Railroad. The house lost its original large center chimney when the entire building was moved 150 feet west in 1872 to make way for a new rail line along Main Street that connected the Danbury and Norwalk to the Shepaug Railroad. The building was then used as a boardinghouse for railroad workers until 1881, when George M. Cole purchased the house. He built the addition on the east side of the house, as well as the front porch.

Hotchkiss House (1819)

David Miles Hotchkiss (1787-1878) was an educator, civic leader, and abolitionist in the town of Prospect. In 1819-1820, his father, Frederick Hotchkiss, had erected a farmhouse for him at 61 Waterbury Road for a total cost of $660.99. David Hotchkiss operated a boarding school, called the Select Academy, on the house’s second floor. A member of the committee that named the town Prospect (for its high elevation) when it was incorporated in 1827 (the town was formed from the neighboring towns of Waterbury and Cheshire), Hotchkiss then served as a town selectman and in the state legislature. An abolitionist, he contributed to the creation of the Free Soil Party in Connecticut in 1848. The house was inherited by his tenth child, David Bryant Hotchkiss (1853-1903). The building was altered and enlarged over the years, with changes that included the replacement of the original large center chimney with a smaller one in the 1870s. At that same time the original front door was removed, but it was reused in the ell attached to the rear of the house. Three of David Bryant’s children, his son Treat (1888-1957) and two daughters, Ruth (1885-1978) and Mabel (1882-1966), never married and lived in the house until their deaths. The siblings left the house and surrounding property, which includes the Hotchkiss Farm, to their nieces, Nellie and Ruth Cowdell, who then sold it to the town of Prospect in 1980. Upon their deaths, the town received a bequest from the sisters towards the maintenance of the house, which is now the headquarters of the Prospect Historical Society.

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