Hezekiah Ranney House (1797)

Hezekiah Ranney House

The sign on the house at 14 Prospect Hill Road in Cromwell identifies it as the Hezekiah Ranney House with the date of 1797. In that year, Hezekiah Ranney (1742-1826), a school teacher, sold the house to Samuel Kirby, a farmer, and moved out of the state. Ranney had inherited the property in 1775 with a house built in the 1740s for his father, Capt. Joseph Ranney. Hezekiah Ranney possibly built the current house around 1788, when he mortgaged the property, and it was in existence by 1816, after the property was acquired by Benjamin Wilcox. The house is also known as the Kirby-Wilcox House. Benjamin Wilcox had a farm and operated a cider mill with his brother Eliphalet, who acquired his brother’s holdings in 1830. When Eliphalet Wilcox died in 1839, his son, Eben Wilcox, inherited the property. Eben gave the house to his son, Joseph E. Wilcox, in 1854. Joseph Wilcox, probably made the Italianate Victorian-era alterations to the house, c. 1870. His brownstone carriage step still stands in front of the house. The house was sold out of the Wilcox family in 1915.

Paul King Sheffield House (1796)

Paul King Sheffield House, Southport

The house at 72 Willow Street in Southport was built in 1796 by Paul King Sheffield (1764-1845). Born in Stonington, Sheffield engaged in privateering during the Revolutionary War with his father and brother in an armed vessel they equipped and sailed themselves. After the war he moved to Fairfield and married Mabel Thorp, daughter of Capt. Walter Thorp, and became a ship-master and ship-owner. The house on Willow Street was the childhood home of Paul King Sheffield’s son, Joseph Earl Sheffield (1793-1882), who grew up to become a wealthy railroad magnate and philanthropist. Later a resident of New Haven, Sheffield gave Yale University a building and a $130,000 endowment for its scientific department, which was renamed the Sheffield Scientific School in his honor.

Eunice Ward House (1830)

Eunice Ward House

Eunice Ward (1771-1858), widow of James Ward (they were married in 1793), built the house at 438 Main Street in Middlefield around 1830 on land she had received from her father, John Birdsey, in 1792. Following her death the house passed to her two daughters, Almira and Lucina. As recorded in the History of Middlefield and Long Hill (1883), by Thomas Atkins:

James Ward 2d, married Eunice Birdsey, and lived near the center of Middlefield. Eunice Birdsey Ward died Jan. 30, 1858. The follow­ing is clipped from a Middletown paper. “In this town, Middlefield Society, Mrs. Eunice Ward, widow of the late James Ward, aged nearly 88 years. She was a worthy member of the Congre­gational Church in this place, and was much loved and respected by a large circle of relatives and acquaintances. She was cheerful and social in temperament, and passionately fond of flowers.”

The children of James and Eunice Ward were:
Almira, still living at the old home (1883).
Eunice, who married Richard M. Bailey.
Lucina.
Amelia, who m. 1st, Timothy Coe; 2d, John Smith.
James, who m. Electa, who m. William T. Boardman of West­field.
Irena, who m. Peter Ashton.
Elizabeth, died young.
John, died in infancy.

South Britain Congregational Church (1825)

South Britain Congregational Church

Having made the trek to the Congregational church in Southbury each Sunday for three decades, residents of the South Britain section of town petitioned the General Assembly to have four months of winter preaching near their own homes. The South Britain Ecclesiastical Society was formed in 1766 and built a meeting house on the Green in 1770. The current South Britain Congregational Church, located at 693 South Britain Road north of the first building, was built in 1825. The interior was renovated in 1869, when the pediments over the three front doors were also changed from semi-circular fanlights to one curvilinear and two triangular pediments (more in keeping with the Greek Revival style).

Pease House (1828)

Former Maples Inn & Tea Room

The long side ell of the Pease House, located at 567 Main Street in Somers, may have been built in the eighteenth century (1715), but the main block was constructed in 1828 and the entire facade of the house reflects the remodeling of that year in the Federal style. The house became the Maples Inn and Tea Room in the early twentieth century and remained in business until 1953. It is a private home today, but the current owners open their decorated house to tours during the holiday season.

Henry Sturges House (1834)

608 Harbor Rd., Southport

The house at 608 Harbor Road in Southport was built in the early nineteenth century (perhaps c. 1834) for Capt. Jeremiah Sturges, a shipbuilder. As related in the Commemorative Biographical Record of Fairfield County, Connecticut (1899), Sturges

also carried on a drug store and a coal yard. He owned some oceangoing ships, having nine vessels in the Mediterranean trade, besides several in the coastwise trade and in the West Indies trade. He was one of the most public spirited men of his times, and a great benefactor to humanity. He was largely instrumental in securing the building of the breakwater, himself being the contractor. Jeremiah Sturges married Maria Shelton. daughter of Philo Shelton, of Bridgeport, and by her had children as follows: Henry, and Henryetta, who married Henry Perry, a brother of Francis and Charles Perry. Jeremiah Sturges was prominent in political affairs, and he was president of the bank for many years. He taught navigation to all the sea captains of the State, keeping what was substantially a school of navigation. He died in the year 1845, his wife in 1861.

Jeremiah Sturges was also in charge of the Mill River Fencibles, a militia unit of the War of 1812. His son, Henry Sturges, succeeded to his father’s business. As further related in the Commemorative Biographical Record of Fairfield County, Connecticut (1899):

Though he followed shipbuilding only for a time, yet he retained his interest in the marine business for some years, retiring altogether early in life. Some time previous to the breaking out of the Civil war he purchased a farm in Plymouth, Litchfield county, on which he lived for some ten or twelve years, and then he purchased a plantation in southwest Georgia, which he kept seven years. This he exchanged for various properties, inclnding a farm on the Raritan river, and engaged in dairying on a large scale. After six or seven years thus spent. he retired from farming and dairying and returned to Southport, where he lived the remainder of his days. Though he was a graduate of Trinity College and a licensed lawyer, yet he never practiced law. Politically, he was a Republican, and had much to do in the way of administrator of estates, holding also several minor offices.

Mr. Sturges married Henryetta Baldwin, daughter of Abram Dudley Baldwin, of Greenfield Hill. He and his wife had six children, viz.: Jeremiah; Henry, living in Montreal, Canada; Henryetta Maria, married to Dr. William L. Wells; Dr. Abram Baldwin Sturges, of Southport; Anna B., married to John A. Gorham, of Southport: and William Shelton Sturges. Henry Sturges died in 1885

In 1906 the house was the residence of Dr. Abram B. Sturges.