The oldest surviving house in the village of North Stonington is the William Sisson House, built in 1776. Located at 69 Main Street, it is unusual in being a hip-roofed Georgian style house, a form more commonly found in the southern states. William Sisson was a joiner (and possibly a farmer as well). The house is in the Historic American Buildings Survey, where it is referred to as House, Post Office Vicinity, North Stonington, New London County, CT.
Built in 1843 (or perhaps c. 1860) for two blacksmiths, the house at 104 Main Street in North Stonington is a vernacular residence with Victorian-era embellishments. John Own Wheeler (1818-1900) and Thomas William Wheeler (1822-1900) (who may have been a laborer and not a blacksmith) were sons of Jesse Wheeler (1786-1852), who was also a blacksmith.
The house at 33 Main Street in North Stonington was built c. 1860. In the mid-nineteenth century it was lived in by Deacon John D. Wheeler and his wife. Wheeler had a small shop near the river bank in Milltown/North Stonington village where he made tools. Later in the nineteenth century, the house was occupied by William Horace Hillard, a farmer and teacher. In 1861 Hillard bought the general store (60 Main Street) from Charles N. Wheeler. Hillard also served as Clerk, Registrar and Treasurer of North Stonington and was a deacon of the Third Baptist Church and superintendent of the Sunday school. The house, which is Gothic Revival in style with Italianate features, was later the parsonage for the Third Baptist Church, located next door.
The Greek Revival house at 1 Babcock Road in North Stonington was built c. 1830-1840. There is a barn on the property (east of the house) that was used as a cider mill, a blacksmith shop, and then a paint shop by William J. Richmond.
The village of North Stonington in the Town of North Stonington was developed in the nineteenth century as a mill village and was called Milltown. Inspired by the evangelism Jabez S. Swan, first pastor of the Huntington Street Baptist Church in New London, a group of Milltown residents gathered at the home of Samuel Chapman to form a Baptist church on December 25, 1828. It was the Third Baptist Church in North Stonington, following the First Baptist Church (formed in 1743) and the Second Baptist Church (formed in 1765). The Third Baptist Church initially held its services in private homes and in the District #2 Schoolhouse. Its membership grew and a church, called the Milltown Baptist Meeting House, was built in 1833 at what is now 29 Main Street on land donated by Mrs. Stephen Avery, widow of Stephen Avery. North Stonington’s Fourth Baptist Church, also known as the Laurel Glen Chapel, was dismantled in 1940 and attached to the rear of the Third Baptist Church.
The building at 42 Main Street in North Stonington was built just before 1809 by Daniel Packer and Jedidiah Randall. It served as a store and for a time as a jail. It was moved from another spot on the same lot in the late nineteenth century. The building was the T.S. & H.D. Wheeler Store (a general store) before it was converted into North Stonington‘s Town Hall in 1904. A neighboring garage was converted into a new Town Hall in 1978. Today the old Town Hall is used for the offices of the selectmen, resident state trooper, and other town officials.
Attention Readers: I will be at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center tonight at 5:00 PM discussing and signing copies of my book, Vanished Downtown Hartford. Please come to this Nook Farm Book Talk if you are in the area! The house at 85 Main Street in North Stonington was built in 1819 (according to the sign on the house) or circa 1790 (according to the nomination for North Stonington Village Historic District). It was the home of Gilbert Sisson, a cabinetmaker and merchant. Born in 1769, Sisson married Desire Main in 1791. One of their sons, Charles Grandison Sisson (1807-1874), became a contractor and railroad president in New Jersey. Another, Noyes Sisson (1798-1872), was a cabinet maker and farmer in North Stonington.
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