Bishop-Woodward House (1790)

The Bishop-Woodward House, at 205 Center Street in Wolcott was built in 1790 for Bnai Bishop, who ran an adjacent store. Bishop also accommodated travelers in his house and there was a stable to the rear. It was later the home of Reverend Israel B. Woodward (1767-1810), the second minister of Wolcott‘s Congregational Church, who also ran a school in the house for young men training for the ministry. According to John Warner Barber in his Connecticut Historical Collections, Rev. Woodward,

though somewhat eccentric in some parts of his conduct, was a person of superior intelligence and esteemed by his parishioners. A thanksgiving sermon of his is recollected, in which he compared the state of Connecticut to the land of Canaan. In one respect, he mentioned, there was a striking similarity; the land of Canaan was rocky, this was very much the case with Connecticut, at least with that part of it in which Wolcott was situated.

By the end of the nineteenth century, the house was home to Adelbert Woods, Wolcott’s last postmaster.