Southbury - Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Jonathan Stiles House (1820)

The house at 67 Mansion House Road in Southbury was built c. 1820 for Jonathan Stiles by his parents, Abel and Lucinda Stiles. They also built a house (1101 Main Street) for their other son Rufus. Jonathan left his house to his son Ransom, who left it to his daughter Anna and son Walter in 1912. Their sister, Bertha Stiles, married Charles W. Burpee (1859-1945), a newspaper editor and author who also served in the Connecticut National Guard. The Burpees resided at 19 Forest Street in Hartford, but in 1916 they acquired the Southbury house for use as a summer residence. Burpee was managing editor of the Hartford Courant from 1900 to 1904 and then head of the educational and editorial departments of the Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Company of Hartford from 1904 to 1935, serving the last five of those years as editor of the Hartford Times. He was the author of several books, including The Military History of Waterbury (1891); the History of Hartford County (1928); A Century in Hartford, Being the History of the Hartford County Mutual Fire Insurance Company (1931); and The Story of Connecticut (1939). The house passed to Bertha and Charles‘s son Stiles Burpee.

George Canfield House (1835)

Built around 1835, the Greek Revival house at 756 South Britain Road in South Britain, Southbury was the home of George Canfield (died 1870). The house was built on the site of Aaron Downs’ house. Canfield married Cornelia H. Beecher (1800-1876) in 1824. Canfield was a harness-maker and his harness and saddling shop was located south of his house.

Elijah Booth House (1771)

The house at 968 Main Street North was constructed sometime before 1771 (perhaps as early as 1716?), when the property was acquired by Elijah Booth from Edward Hinman. Booth was a cabinetmaker and in 1806 his dwelling house, joiners shop and barn were acquired by Eli Hall. The house remained in the Hall family until it was sold by Hall’s daughter, Lydia Ann Hall, who married Sherman B. Warner, sold it in 1892. From 1915 to 1918 the house was one of five, including the Peter Parley House, that were were owned as a seasonal estate by Robert and Antonia Treupel of Mamaroneck, NY. They sold their houses to the Lutheran Inner-Mission Society of Connecticut, which sold the Booth House to Delia Hunihan in 1933. She lived there with her husband John until 1959. Restoration of the house was begun by its next owner, Mark Messier, and was continued by Carl and Elizabeth Kamphausen, who bought it in 1962.

Croucher-Richmond House (1780)

The traditional date for the house at 886 Main Street North in Southbury is 1715, although it was more likely to have been built around 1780. The earliest owners are not known, but it passed through several families in the nineteenth through early twentieth century. In 1938 it was bought by Daniel and Marguerite Croucher. By then the house’s condition had deteriorated. The Crouchers rehabilitated the house in the Colonial Revival style, removing Victorian-era additions, which included a front porch. Daniel Croucher was a New York City antiques dealer. He acquired the neighboring White Oak School House in 1940. From 1954 to 1964 the house was owned by Helena Penrose, another New York antiques dealer. Howard and Priscilla Richmond, also antiques dealers, acquired the house from Penrose’s estate in 1965. They used the former school house as their antiques shop. Before retiring to Southbury in 1957, where he started a second career in the antiques business, Howard K. Richmond had been a graphic designer and art director in New York. He created the original layout and logo for Life magazine in 1936. He also did advertising and publicity work for Lord & Taylor, Bloomingdale’s, Elizabeth Arden and Saks Fifth Avenue.

Alfred Platt House (1790)

The house at 127 Mansion House Road in Southbury may have been built around 1790 by Simeon Mitchell (d. 1826), whose son would build the nearby Mitchell Mansion House in 1829. Simeon’s daughter Anna sold the house in 1837 and it was then owned by the Curtiss and Monson families. In the 1880s the house was owned by William C. Beecher, who altered it by removing its original central-chimney and replacing it with the present two chimneys. He also added the bay window on the south side. William C. Beecher is described in the History of New Haven County, Vol. II (1892), edited by J. L. Rockey:

William C. Beecher, born in Southbury May 28th, 1828, is a son of Nathaniel and Hannah (Peck) Beecher, and grandson of Nathaniel. [. . .] William C. married Mary E. Strong, of Woodbury, April 4th, 1855. They have six children [. . .] Mr. Beecher enlisted in 1862, in Company B, 13th Connecticut Regiment, as second lieutenant, helping to recruit this company, he being the only commissioned officer from Southbury. He served under General Butler, participating in the taking of New Orleans, and afterward under General Banks. He was discharged on account of ill health February 5th, 1863, and returned to Southbury. After regaining his health, he was engaged in superintending railroad construction, his first work being on the Hartford, Providence & Fishkill road. Twelve years later he assisted in the completion of the same line under the name of the New York & New England railroad. He also assisted in building the Connecticut Valley, Providence & Springfield and the D. L. & W. railroads.

Alfred and Mary Platt owned the house from 1900 to 1935. Alfred Platt was Woodbury’s first rural delivery mail carrier.

Amos Johnson House (1799)

Although surrounded by modern development, the old farmhouse at 750 Main Street South in Southbury has survived and is now home to the Carpino Funeral Home. The house was built in 1799 by Amos Johnson (1753-1824), but the kitchen ell on the south side is likely several decades older. Amos Johnson was a soldier in the Revolutionary War and later a town selectman.

Benjamin P. Downs House (1835)

Local tradition holds that the house at 657 South Britain Road in Southbury was built c. 1770, but it is more likely that it was built c. 1835 by Benjamin P. Downs on the site of his family’s old homestead. In 1854 he sold the house to Sally Curtiss, widow of George Curtiss, so it is also known as Mrs. S. Curtiss House. It was extensively restored by Henry Bassett, who acquired the house in 1946.