Honan Funeral Home (1790)

The house at 58 Main Street in Newtown was built c. 1790 and is now the Honan Funeral Home. In 1912, the house was purchased by William A. Honan, Sr., who had just married Margaret Hayes of Sandy Hook. It was then a two-family house, with the Honan family residing in one half and renting the other half. Honan had established his undertaking business in 1903 and stored his embalming and funeral equipment in a garage and storage rooms behind the house. He tore down the garage in 1938 and erected a new building for his funeral home, with the business on the first floor and a rental apartment on the second floor. Honen died in 1966 and in 1969 his son, William Honan, Jr, moved the funeral home into the house at 58 Main Street. He made extensive renovations to the building and the new funeral home reopened in 1970. The current Funeral Director of the three-generation business is Daniel T. Honan.

40 Main Street, Newtown (1893)

An article last Spring (April 24, 2017) in the Newtown Bee [“New Owner Brings New Life To 40 Main Street,” by Kendra Bobowick] notes the recent renovation of an 1893 Queen Anne-style Victorian house. Around 1905, Charles H. Northrop, town treasurer, lived in the house. He was accused of embezzlement and hung himself in the house’s foyer. From 1910 into the 1920s, the house was used by the local telephone exchange. The house was used as a law office from the 1940s through 2001.

Balcony House (1820)

Known locally as the “Balcony House,” the residence at 34 Main Street in Newtown is located just south of Trinity Episcopal Church. The nomination for the Newtown Borough Historic District gives the mansard-roofed house a date of c. 1870, but the real estate websites (linked above) give a date of c. 1820. Perhaps it was built around 1820 and updated in the Second Empire style around 1870? Until his death in 1950, it was the home of Arthur Treat Nettleton, who became treasurer of the Newtown Savings Bank in 1898 and its president in 1938. The picture above was taken back in 2010, when it was painted in darker colors than at present.

David Johnson House (1865)

A terrible tragedy took place yesterday in Newtown, Connecticut. My thoughts go out to this devastated community, which is such a beautiful place. The house pictured above, at 46 Main Street in Newtown, was built around 1865 and was the home of David Johnson, who ran the Newtown General Store across the street. The picture was taken a few years ago, in the Spring during happier days. (more…)