Capt. Sylvanus Griswold House (1790)

Capt. Sylvanus Griswold House

The house at 1832 Poquonock Avenue in Windsor was built c. 1790 by Capt. Sylvanus Griswold (1733-1811). A prominent and wealthy man, Sylvanus Griswold served as a lieutenant in the Revolutionary War. His son, Gaylord Griswold, was admitted to the bar in 1790. He is described in Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College, Vol. IV (1907), by Franklin Bowditch Dexter:

the fourth son and fifth child of Captain Silvanus Griswold, of Windsor, Connecticut, one of the wealthiest and most influential men in Hartford County, and grandson of Captain Benjamin and Esther (Gaylord) Griswold, of Windsor, was born on December 20, 1767. His mother was Mary Collins, of Wallingford, Connecticut.

Gaylord moved to New York State in 1792. The house was owned by Charles W. Hathaway in the mid-nineteenth century.

Archer-Gilligan Murder House (1875)

37 Prospect Street, Windsor

Today I’m featuring the infamous Archer-Gilligan Murder House in Windsor. The play and film Arsenic and Old Lace was inspired by the true story of Amy Archer-Gilligan (1873-1962), AKA “Sister Amy,” who ran the house at 37 Prospect Street (built c. 1875-1880) as the Archer Home for the Elderly and Infirm. She and her first husband, James Archer, had earlier run a home for the elderly in Newington, moving to Windsor in 1907. James Archer died in 1910, a few weeks after his wife had taken out an insurance policy on him. In 1913 Amy married her second husband, Michael W. Gilligan, a wealthy widower with four adult sons. He died on February 20, 1914, again leaving her financially secure. Between 1907 and 1916 there were 60 deaths of her clients in the Archer home, 48 of them from 1911 to 1916, many of whom passed away after paying her large sums of money. Suspicious relatives of her clients brought the story to the Hartford Courant, which published several articles on the “Murder Factory.” A police investigation followed. Exhumations of the bodies of Gilligan and four others revealed that they had been poisoned. Archer-Gilligan had also been purchasing large quantities of arsenic. A jury found her guilty of murdering one of her tenants in 1917 and she was sentenced to death. In 1919, on appeal, she was found guilty of second degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. In 1924 she was declared temporarily insane and was transferred to the Connecticut Hospital for the Insane in Middletown, where she remained until her death.

Timothy Dwight Mills House (1833)

Timothy Dwight Mills House

Built around 1833 by Timothy Dwight Mills, the house at 184 Deerfield Road in Windsor is an example of one of the many brick houses constructed in town in the early nineteenth century. Timothy Dwight Mills (1803-1846), who married Sarah Welles, was a farmer and brickmaker. His brothers, Samuel Webster Mills and Oliver Williams Mills, also had houses on Deerfield Road. The porch was added in 1910.