Mansfield - Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Dan Storrs House (1786)

In 1786, Dan Storrs built the house at 521 Storrs Road in Mansfield on land he had acquired from his brother-in-law, Shubael Conant, Jr. Dan Storrs ran a general store that once stood north of his house. The house was owned by his family until 1903. As related in Vol. III of New England Families, Genealogical and Memorial (1913), Dan Storrs

was born February 7, 1748, at Mansfield. He was a soldier in the revolution, one of the Lexington alarm men, a quartermaster of a Connecticut regiment and was at White Pains. He was an active and enterprising citizen, assisting the government materially by the manufacture of salt-peter, and by his ardent patriotism. He earnestly supported Washington and opposed the policies of Jefferson. He was for many years a merchant at Mansfield, both wholesale and retail, and for twenty-five years conducted a hotel there, known far and wide as the Dan Storrs Tavern, which is still standing. He was also a prosperous farmer and owned much land. He left a large estate in Mansfield, Ashford, Willington and Tolland. He was for many years banker for this section. His store was on the corner of Main street, Mansfield, and the road to Ashford. In physique he was tall, large and robust, and in manner courteous and obliging. After the fashion of his day he wore a queue. He died January 3. 1831. His gravestone is at Mansfield. He married. January 5, 1775, Ruth, daughter of Colonel Shubael Conant, of Mansfield, granddaughter of Rev. Eleazer Williams. His wife died April 18, 1792 (gravestone record) and he married (second) October 28. 1793, Mary, daughter of Constant Southworth of Mansfield.

His son, Zalmon Storrs (1779-1867), is described in volume V of Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College (1911):

Zalmon Storrs, the second son of Dan Storrs, of Mansfield, Connecticut, and grandson of Thomas and Eunice (Paddock) Storrs, of Mansfield, was born in Mansfield, on December 18, 1779. His mother was Ruth, second daughter of the Hon. Shubael Conant (Yale 1732) and Ruth (Conant) Conant. In 1802 he began the study of law with Thomas S. Williams (Yale 1794), then of Mansfield, but after the death of his elder brother, in April, 1803, he felt obliged to take his place in the management of the large country-store which their father had long conducted, and he continued in that occupation for many years. He was also a pioneer in that part of the State in the manufacture of silk thread, having established a factory in 1835 [in Mansfield Hollow in partnership with his son, Dan P. Storrs].

He was a Justice of the Peace from the spring of 1813 until disqualified by age (in 1849). In May, 1813, he was first sent as a Representative of the town to the General Assembly, and was re-elected for five more sessions,—-the last in 1841. He was the first Postmaster at Mansfield Centre (in 1825), and retained the office for upwards of twenty years. For 1834-35, and again for a period of six years (1843-49) he was Judge of Probate for the district of Mansfield. In 1834 he was the candidate of the Anti-Masonic party for Governor of the State.

He united with the Congregational Church in Mansfield in July, 1823, and was highly esteemed as a pillar of that body. He died in Mansfield on February 17, 1867, in his 88th year, being the last survivor of his College Class [1801].

681 Middle Turnpike, Mansfield (1820)

The house at 681 Middle Turnpike in the Mansfield Four Corners section of Mansfield, not far from Storrs, was built sometime before 1820. It had a number of owners until 1843, when it was purchased by Rev. Aaron R. Livermore (1810-1892), who was the minister of Mansfield’s North Society Church, now Storrs Congregational Church, from 1843 to 1858. The house was next owned by the Fish family.

Edwin O. Smith House (1831)

The house at 668 Middle Turnpike in Mansfield was built in 1831 by Arnold Wilson. Instead of a glass fanlight above the front door it has one made of wood. The house had many owners over the years, with Joseph Woodward adding an ell in 1836. The house was acquired by Edwin O. Smith in 1923, whose wife named it “Kendall Green” after the house in Washington D.C. owned by her ancestor, Amos Kenall, who was U.S. Postmaster General from 1835 to 1840. E. O. Smith served in the Connecticut General Assembly from 1932 to 1960 and was president of the Connecticut Agricultural College (now UCONN) from from April through September, 1908. Edwin O. Smith High School, next to the UCONN campus in Storrs, is named for him.

Mansfield General Store (1886)

The general store at 534 Storrs Road in Mansfield was built in 1886 by Charles H. Weeks. Above the store was Elmwood Hall, where town meetings and events were held. John Starkweather briefly owned the store in 1897 before selling it to Alfred Oden, who ran it for thirty years. In 1906, Oden, who lived above the store, fired shots from the balcony at two escaping burglars who had just blown open the store safe. One of them left behind a derby riddled with shotgun holes! In 1928, Oden sold the store to Thomas Arthur Barrows and Gustav Clauson. After the latter died, Barrows bought his share. He was later joined by his sister, Gertrude Burnham, and for many years the store was called Barrows and Burnham. It is now known as the the Mansfield General Store. The Mansfield Center Post Office was located here from 1899 to 1954.

Fletcher-Fenner Homestead (1755)

Around 1739, John Fletcher (d. 1788) and his wife, Rachel Wing Fletcher (1697-1778) (they married in 1720 in Harwich, Massachusetts), settled in the village of Wormwood Hill in Mandfield. By the mid-1750s they had built the central-chimney house at 611 Wormwood Hill Road. According to Wormwood Hill: Its Settlement and Growth (2009) by Rudy J. Favretti and Isabelle K. Atwood, John Fletcher became wealthy purchasing and selling various pieces of land. His son John possibly lived in the house, which then passed to his younger brother, Capt. Richard Fletcher (1736-1812), who sold it in 1806. It then had other owners. In 1843 it was acquired by Amos G. Fenner (1807-1882), a farmer originally from Warwick, Rhode Island. His son William (1837-1918) and daughter-in-law Damorous Anstice Holley Fenner (1835-1907) later lived in the house and turned the south lawn into a croquet court. In 1913, their son Frank E. Fenner (1865-1933), who lived in Waterbury, sold the house to his cousin, George Silas Clark (1869-1938). In 1954, it was purchased by H. John Thorkelson (d. 2003), an economics professor at UCONN, and his wife Virginia, is now the home of their son, Peter Tork, formerly of the band The Monkees.

Holley Homestead (1752)

Holley Homestead, Wormwood Hill, Mansfield

In 1746, Sylvanus Freeman purchased a farm in the Wormwood Hill area of Mansfield and in 1752 he built a gambrel-roofed house on the property. Freeman sold the farm in 1764 and it passed through several other owners until 1817, when it was acquired by Selah Holley, a widow from Charlestown, Rhode Island, whose husband had passed away two years before. She lived in the homestead with her children, among whom was Perry Holley, who continued to reside in the house with his mother after his marriage in 1830 to Lois Fenton. As described in the Commemorative Biographical Record of Tolland and Windham Counties, Connecticut (1903), Perry Holley

was born July 2, 1809, in Rhode Island, and came to Mansfield when a boy. During his boyhood he worked upon the farm, and when still a young man learned the trade of forger, working at the manufacture of bits and augers in various localities where those goods were made; he was also one of the first operators of the trip hammer, being very expert in the handling of the clumsy machine, and consequently commanded good wages. In company with Hiram Parker he operated a forge shop near his house for a few years. After working at his trade for many years, he spent his declining years in Mansfield, farming, and died there in March, 1885. In religion he was a member of the Methodist Church at Gurleyville, and when a young man took a very active part in its affairs. Mr. Holly married Lois Fenton, a native of Mansfield, daughter of Elisha and Phileta (Storrs) Fenton, where her father was a blacksmith. Mrs. Holly died on April I8, 1892, aged eighty-four years, four months, to a day.

The Holley Homestead was sold out of the family in 1889 to Mary F. Sewall of Montclair, New Jersey, who used it as a summer home. One autumn, as she prepared to return to New Jersey for the winter, she asked a local carpenter to build an addition to the house. When she returned next summer, she was astonished to find that he had built what was essentially an entirely new house attached to the old gambrel-roofed colonial. The original house was later altered with the addition of a porch and gables. After 14 years of ownership, Sewell sold the house to Elizabeth Scheib Doty of Brooklyn, whose husband, Ethan Allen Doty (d. 1915), owned a large paper mill called Doty & Scrimgeour. The house, located at 627 Wormwood Hill Road, was next sold in 1931 to Stanley Kunitz, a well-known poet who worked on restoring the structure. It was again sold in 1935 to John Plimpton, who rented out rooms in the house. It is still owned by his heirs.

Parker Homestead (1777)

At 640 Wormwood Hill Road in Mansfield is a house originally built by Capt. Richard Fletcher (1736-1812) and sold, in 1777, to Zachariah Parker, Jr., who farmed on the property. The house would remain in the Parker family until 1901. Zachariah passed it to his eldest son, Thomas Parker, who had five sons and one daughter with his wife, Hannah Atwood Parker. The elder brothers, Miner and Pliny, married, but the three younger brothers did not. Their sister, Hannah Parker (1804-1895), kept house for her brothers at the Parker Homestead, where she lived until her death. Hannah Parker also taught school at Wormwood Hill and professed to be the first female teacher in Mansfield. Her nieces and nephews inherited the house and sold it in 1901 to Gertrude Cantor of New York. She and her sister, Alice Cantor, ran the property as a summer boarding house. To make more room for their many guests, the sisters raised the house from its original one-and-a-half stories to a full two stories. (more…)