Buckingham-Hall House (1760)

The Buckingham-Hall House at Mystic Seaport was erected circa 1760 in what is now Old Saybrook by the Buckingham family. The house, which was located near the ferry crossing at the mouth of the Connecticut River, was purchased by William Hall, Jr., son of a New York import merchant, in 1833. When construction of a new highway bridge across the river threatened it with demolition in 1951, the house was presented to Mystic Seaport by the State Highway Department. It was shipped by barge to its present location, where it was reconstructed and refurnished to represent the lifestyle of the Buckingham family in the 1810s. In 1994, the house was re-restored and reinterpreted to represent the Hall family.

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John Foote, Jr. House (1780)

A sign on the house at 360 Cherry Brook Road in Canton gives a date of 1743, but according to the Canton Sesquicentennial, 1806-1956, A Short History of Canton, p. 99, it was built about 1780 by John Foote, Jr. (1760-1803). His son, Lancel Foote (1790-1865), was chosen a deacon in the Congregational Church in 1839 and was superintendent of the Sunday School organized in 1819. Lancel Foote also held many town offices and was a representative to the state legislature.

Capt. Willoughby Lynde House (1799)

The house at 174 North Cove Road in Old Saybrook was built in 1799 by Willoughby Lynde, a wealthy sea captain. Willoughby and his father, Samuel Lynde, engaged in farming and trade with the West Indies. Both were also slave owners. Nine enslaved people worked on the Lynde farm and wharf and also increased the family’s wealth by producing cloth. The Lynde House has an ell, which was built c. 1645 as a separate building. In the eighteenth century, the ell was owned by another mariner, Captain Samuel Doty, a West Indies trader and shipbuilder, who had a shipyard, warehouse and wharf on the Connecticut River. Capt. Doty’s own house was torn down in 1813, when the Samuel Hart, Jr. House was built. He used the ell as a bakery for ship’s bread. The ell was attached to the Lynde House about the time of the latter’s construction. The ell is to the right of the house’s front facade, while on the left is a new addition, constructed since 2008.

55 Old Post Road, Tolland (1760)

The house at 55 Old Post Road in Tolland was built c. 1760-1790. A fire later destroyed the roof and part of the second floor, but the house was rebuilt. This seems to be the house described as follows in the History of Tolland County, Connecticut (1888), by J.R. Cole:

Next south was the old Ashbel Steel place, which was used for a school house. Mr. Lucius S. Fuller taught there both before and after the building was moved. Doctor Potwine lived in this house. Joshua Griggs now owns it.

The Masons established Uriel Lodge No. 24 in Tolland in 1793. Now located in Merrow (in Mansfield), the lodge once occupied the front of the house’s second story.

Timothy Hubbard House (1735)

A sign on the house at 136 Middletown Road in Berlin bears the name Timothy Hubbard and the year 1735. The house was long associated with the Bulkley family. About 1825 it was acquired by Colonel William Bulkley (died 1878), who made tinman’s tools (bench shears & snips) and, for a time, spoons in a shop across the street. He had acquired the shop with his brother, Justus, in 1823. As related in Catharine Melinda North’s History of Berlin (1916):

Horse power was used at first and ten men were employed. The tools were forged in this shop, and then were taken to what is known as Risley’s saw mill, to be ground and polished. Justus Bulkeley, who lived in the house east of the shop, died in 1844. His brother William continued the business and, in 1850, put an engine into the factory.

She later records that

After the Bulkeleys sold the Risley mill to Lyman Wilcox, they ground their tinners’ tools and made rotary shears for cutting sheet metal in circles at Blair’s factory.

She also gives the following description:

Mr. Bulkeley was a genial man, full of fun, and a good neighbor—one of the kind who would go out of his way to do a favor. In his day, whenever there was an auction in town, Colonel Bulkeley was called upon to conduct the sale. By his ready wit he made much fun for the people, as he led up to the final “Going, going, gone.”

Ambrose Hine House (1760)

Ambrose Hine acquired land at what is now 118 Cook Road in Prospect, c.1755-1757. The property record card for the Ambrose Hind House lists a date of 1760. The house does not appear in land records until 1794. Ambrose Hine (born 1726) served in the Revolutionary War as captain of the 5th battalion in James Wadsworth’s Brigade, which was with Washington at the Battle of Long Island on August 27, 1776. Highland Greens Golf Course in Prospect is located on land that Capt. Hine once farmed and he built many of the stone walls that survive on the property.