Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Author: Daniel

Henry Stillman House (1872)

The Henry Stillman House is an 1872 Gothic Revival style home on Main Street in Wethersfield.

Built in 1787 for Henry Deming on Main Street in Wethersfield and later owned by the Standish family, the Deming-Standish House was given to the town of Wethersfield in 1928. It is very similar to the 1783 brick house built for Samuel Woodhouse, Jr., on nearby River Road. In 1800, James Francis and his cousin, Simeon, were contracted to do the woodworking of the front rooms and the windows, the facade thus being updated in the Federal style. Within a few years, the neighboring Hurlbut and Shepard Houses would be constructed in the Federal style. The house was leased to the Wethersfield Historical Society in 1983 and over the years has been rented to different proprietors as a restaurant, first as The Standish House, and more recently as The Village Tavern. It is currently between tenants.

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General Mansfield House (1810)

Built in 1810 on Main Street in Middletown for the merchant Samuel Mather, the Federal-style General Mansfield House was later home to Mather’s daughter Louisa and her husband, General Joseph K. F. Mansfield. At the start of the Civil War, Mansfield was in charge of the defense of Washington, D.C. On September 17, 1862, he was killed at the Battle of Antietam (or Sharpsburg) in Maryland, haven just taken command two days before of the XII Corps of the Army of the Potomac. A monument and a mortuary cannon are dedicated to him on the battlefield of Antietam. There is also a monument in Middletown’s Indian Hill Cemetery, where he is buried. His house was later occupied by his descendants. Slated for demolition in the 1950s, it was saved by the Middlesex County Historical Society and now serves as the Society’s headquarters and museum.

Samuel Woodhouse, Jr. House (1783)

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 (1796)

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.

Captain Francis Bulkeley House (1750)

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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Moses Brace–Uriah Cadwell House (1766)

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.

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