A brick gambrel-roofed house, on River Road in Wethersfield, was constructed for Samuel Woodhouse, Jr. in 1783. He was a sailor and shipbuilder and the son of Samuel Woodhouse, Sr. and Thankful Blinn, the granddaughter of the famous cabinetmaker Peter Blinn. Woodhouse also served in the Revolutionary War.
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The Old State House in Hartford was designed by Charles Bulfinch, who sent the plans from Boston. Bulfinch was perhaps influenced by the design of the Town Hall of Liverpool, England. The original design was much simpler than what is seen today. Many important features were added later, including the balustrade along the roof-line, added to protect firefighters, and the cupola, with a figure of Justice, completed in 1827. It was designed by John Stanwood and modeled on the cupola of City Hall in New York. The entrance to the Old State House faces the Connecticut River, emphasizing the importance of the river to the city at that time. The Connecticut General Assembly, which alternated sessions between Hartford and New Haven until 1875, held its Hartford sessions in the building from 1796 until 1878, when the new State Capitol Building was opened. The Connecticut Supreme Court also met in the Old State House until 1878. Famous events to take place in the building include the infamous Hartford Convention of 1815 and the first Amistad Trial in 1839.
The Old State House building next served as Hartford’s City Hall from 1878 to 1915, when the new Municipal Building was constructed. For many decades, a large Second Empire style Post Office building occupied the front lawn of the Old State House until it was torn down in 1934 and the open area in front was restored. In the twentieth century, the building was either neglected or in danger of being torn down on several occasions, but citizens groups stepped in to save it. It has also undergone several restorations and been open as a museum operated by several different organizations over the years, most recently the Connecticut Historical Society since 2003. The Old State House was in the news earlier this year due to a funding crisis. This prompted a variety of responses and ideas about the future of this historic building.
The home of Capt. Francis Bulkeley, on Main Street in Wethersfield has a similar asymmetrical arrangement to that of the Silas Deane House in Wethersfield and the Moses Brace–Uriah Cadwell House in West Hartford. The date of 1750 may be too early, as those houses date to the 1760s.
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The Moses Brace–Uriah Cadwell House, on Flagg Road in West Hartford, is a colonial house with an asymmetrical arrangement of windows on the facade that is similar to that of the Silas Deane House in Wethersfield, which was built around the same time. I assume that Moses Brace was the first owner. Uriah Cadwell owned the house in the nineteenth century.
This blog is three months old now!
The Lucy Robbins Welles Library, on Cedar Street in Newington, was dedicated in 1939. It was built on the site of the General Roger Welles House, which had burned down in 1855. That homestead had housed an early town library and had been the childhood home of Edwin Welles, who married Lucy Robbins in 1853. The couple moved into the Italianate house across the street, where they lived for over fifty years. In 1919, their daughters, Fanny A. Welles and Mary Welles Eddy, gave funds and land to build a library in honor of their mother. The town later bought some adjoining land and the library was then constructed. The original structure was designed to resemble a colonial house. The library has been expanded since that time with later additions.
Built in 1799 in Newington by the farmer and tinsmith Enoch Kelsey and his son, David Kelsey. The Kelsey House originally stood on Kelsey Street, but was moved to Main Street in 1979 by the Newington Historical Society & Trust, and it currently serves as a colonial house museum.
The Beardslee-Mix House was built around 1774 and originally stood on South Main Street in West Hartford. In the 1930s, when the old farms along South Main was being subdivided to build houses, it was moved to Rockledge Drive. The house was probably built by Abraham Webster, brother of Noah Webster. In 1810, the farm was bought by Elisha Mix, who sold it to Jeremiah Beardslee. It then passed to Beardslee’s son-in-law, Henry Mix.
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