Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Suffield

West Suffield Congregational Church (1840)

The origins of the West Suffield Congregational Church go back to 1743, when Suffield‘s Second Ecclesiastical Society was formed. Its first church building was constructed the following year, on what is now the southwestern corner of the West Suffield Cemetery. A second meeting house was constructed at the intersection of Mountain Road and North Grand Street in 1795, replaced by the current church, built on the same foundation, in 1839-1840. Church parlors were added in 1897 and an educational wing in 1958.

Harvey Bissell House (1815)

Built around 1815, the Harvey Bissell House, on North Main Street in Suffield, is an elaborate example of the Federal style. Harvey Bissell, who married Arabella Leavitt in 1816, originally came from Windsor and became a successful shop keeper in Suffield. In 1846, he is listed as the town’s only retailer of wine and liquor.

Also today, check out the latest entries at Historic Buildings of Massachusetts, the Porter-Phelps-Huntington House in Hadley and Sycamores in South Hadley.

The Byron Loomis House (1850)

Byron Loomis was the son of Neland Loomis, one of the six Loomis brothers who established themselves in Suffield as tobacco merchants (another brother was John Welles Loomis). Byron Loomis, who became one of the wealthiest tobacco barons in Suffield, may have built his Italianate house on South Main Street as early as 1850, or perhaps in the 1860s.

The Hezekiah Spencer House (1820)

Built in 1820 for Hezekiah Spencer on South Main Street in Suffield. The house was later occupied early in the twentieth century by Annie Mearkle, who wrote poetry under the name Angela Marco. (more…)

Dr. Aretus Rising House (1854)

Built in 1854 on South Main Street in Suffield by Dr. Aretus Rising, right next door to another house he built in 1846. This Italianate house has lattice-work columns.

John Welles Loomis House (1846)

Originally built as a center-chimney house in 1846 for Dr. Aretus Rising on South Main Street in Suffield. In 1854, the house was bought by John Welles Loomis, a successful tobacco entrepreneur, who converted it to a center hallway, two chimney house with Greek Revival features. Loomis later built an Italianate house nearby for his son, George W. Loomis.

George W. Loomis House (1860)

Built in 1860 on South Main Street in Suffield by the tobacco baron John Welles Loomis for his son, George W. Loomis. In 1912, a group of Polish residents bought the Italianate house, which now serves as the rectory for the adjacent St. Joseph’s Church. Behind the house is St. Joseph’s Convent.