Captain David Riley House (1710)

A descendent of James Riley, who settled in Wethersfield in 1645, Captain David Riley built the house at 3 Riverview Road, just off Old Main Street in Rocky Hill, in 1710. Capt. Riley was a ship captain and so many of his sons and grandsons, who were also mariners, built houses near his that the intersection was once known as Riley’s Corner. In the later nineteenth century, the house was owned by Dr. Rufus Griswold, a physician. Dr. Griswold had earlier been a journalist as well. An editor of the Brooklyn Morning Journal and the New York Empire City, according to one source, “he became a prominent contributor to American medical journals and one of the leading members of the medical profession in Connecticut.” He was also the guiding spirit of the Rocky Hill Lyceum, which sponsored debates and lectures and whose members met at his home. The house has recently been restored.