Huntley-Brown House (1795)
Friday, March 15th, 2013 Posted in Houses, Old Lyme, Vernacular | No Comments »
Gurdon Clark built the Huntley-Brown House on the Boston Post Road in Laysville in Old Lyme around 1795. Matthew Peck purchased the house in 1808 and sold it to William B. Tooker in 1827. Marvin Huntley, Jr. (1800–1886) bought the house a year later and it remained in the Huntley family for over a century. In 1959, architect Jane Carter and her daughter-in-law Sue McCloud Carter purchased the house and moved it to a lot near the Florence Griswold House. Mrs. John Crosby Brown, President of the Lyme Society, acquired the house in 1974 to serve as a home for the Society’s Director. It was later converted to administrative offices and is still on the grounds of the Florence Griswold Museum.
The John McCurdy House (1700)
Saturday, May 9th, 2009 Posted in Colonial, Houses, Old Lyme | 3 Comments »
Across from the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme, on South Green, is a house built around 1700 by Amos Tinker. In 1753, it was purchased by John McCurdy, a Scotch-Irish ship merchant who was a patriot during the Revolutionary War. George Washington spent a night in the house in April, 1776, when he was on his way from Boston to New York. In July, 1778, Lafayette was also a guest at the McCurdy home. John McCurdy was the grandfather of Judge Charles Johnson McCurdy, who lived in the home in his later years.
The Capt. Samuel Mather House (1790)
Thursday, May 7th, 2009 Posted in Colonial, Houses, Old Lyme | 1 Comment »
The house of Capt. Samuel Mather, on Lyme Street in Old Lyme, is an impressive gambrel-roofed structure built around 1790. The width of the house’s clapboard siding is graduated, increasing with each course up to the building’s cornice. Capt. Mather, a descendant of Rev. Richard Mather of Dorchester, was a wealthy merchant involved in trade with the West Indies. He married Lois Griswold and their daughter, Mehitable Mather, married Capt. Thomas Sill. The house is now the Parsonage of the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme.
The Hiram G. Marvin House
Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008 Posted in Federal Style, Houses, Old Lyme | No Comments »
The house built for Hiram G. Marvin, on Lyme Street in Old Lyme, is an 1824 Federal style structure with some Greek Revival influences. In 2007, the house became the first in Old Lyme to have an historical plaque from the Historic District Commission. Hiram G. Marvin had two brothers, one named Aaron Burr Marvin and the other named Alexander Hamilton Marvin (probably both born in the 1790s). I wonder if they got along later in life?
The Peck Tavern (1680)
Tuesday, September 9th, 2008 Posted in Colonial, Houses, Old Lyme, Taverns & Inns | No Comments »
The Peck Tavern House, located where Sill Lane branches off from US 1 in Old Lyme, may have been built as early as 1680. The house served as an inn and tavern from the mid-eighteenth century into the nineteenth. It has recently been a Bed & Breakfast.
First Congregational Church of Old Lyme (1817)
Sunday, August 3rd, 2008 Posted in Churches, Federal Style, Old Lyme | No Comments »
Lyme’s First Ecclesiastical Society‘s first Meeting House was constructed in 1665-6 and the first minister was Moses Noyes. A second was built in 1689 and in 1738, both earlier structures were dismantled to build the even larger third Meeting House. All three were located on Johnny Cake Hill. When the third church was destroyed after being hit by lightning in 1815, the fourth and current Meeting House was built in 1816-17 on Lyme Street in Old Lyme. Its architect was Samuel Belcher, who also designed the John Sill and William Noyes houses on Lyme Street. The First Congregational Church was refurbished in 1908-9. The American impressionist artists who frequented Lyme in the early twentieth century often painted the church, most notably Childe Hassam.
The Daniel Chadwick House (1830)
Saturday, August 2nd, 2008 Posted in Greek Revival, Houses, Old Lyme | No Comments »
The Daniel Chadwick House, on Lyme Street in Old Lyme, was built in 1830 in the Greek Revival style and includes a widow’s or captain’s walk. It was the home of a notable sea captain involved in trade with London. Chadwick‘s son, also named Daniel Chadwick, was a notable lawyer. The bays and porches on either side of the house are later additions. The house is also currently for sale.
