Deacon John Grave House (1685)

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Built in 1685 by John Grave, Sr. for his son, John Grave, Jr. on the Boston Post Road in Madison, down the road from the Allis-Bushnell House, which was built 100 years later. The Deacon John Grave House originally consisted of just two rooms, until around 1710, when it was expanded into a center-chimney house to accommodate Grave’s growing family. Sometime during the Revolutionary War, the house was expanded again with the addition of a shed in the rear, making it into a saltbox. Seven generations of the same family lived in the house in the following centuries. In 1983, when it was in danger of destruction, the Deacon John Grave Foundation was created to save and restore the home, and it is currently maintained by the Foundation as a house museum.

Allis-Bushnell House (1785)

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Built around 1785 on the Boston Post Road in Madison, the Allis-Bushnell House was at one time the home of Cornelius Scranton Bushnell, a railroad executive and shipbuilder, who played an important role in the building of the Civil War ironclad, the U.S.S. Monitor. Later he was a founder of the Union Pacific Railway. In the early twentieth century, the house was the home and office of Dr. Milo Rindye. It is currently the home of the Madison Historical Society.

East Windsor Hill Post Office (1757)

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In 1757, David Bissell Jr. sold part of his land to Jeremiah Ballard, a barber, who built a shop on Main Street, in East Windsor Hill. The remainder of this shop is the present long ell of the East Windsor Hill Post Office. In 1759, Bissell gave the rest of his land to his son, David Bissell III, who later attached a shop/storehouse to Ballard’s shop. This is the gambrel-roofed warehouse with overhead doorway that now houses the Post Office. Different owners divided the structure for various businesses selling dry goods and groceries over the following years, well into the twentieth century. It also served as a post office, receiving its first government post rider in 1783. It is the oldest continuously operated post office in the country.

Ezekiel Williams House (1759)

Ezekiel Williams House

Built around 1759 for the merchant, Ezekiel Williams, on Broad Street in Wethersfield. Williams was the sheriff of Hartford County from 1767 to 1789 and, during the Revolutionary War, he served as a member of the Committee of the Pay Table and Deputy Commissary General of Prisoners in Connecticut. Ezekiel Williams‘ son, Ezekiel, married a daughter of Oliver Ellsworth.

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Simeon Belden House (1767)

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Built in 1767, on Main Street in Wethersfield, for Simeon Belden, who married Martha, daughter of the minister, James Lockwood. It has a gambrel roof, similar to that of the Webb House and other nearby houses in Wethersfield. The Simeon Belden House is one of very few remaining in the Connecticut River Valley to have its original broken scroll, or swan’s neck, doorway pediment. The house, adjacent to Comstock, Ferre & Co., is currently used as offices and also houses the Krown & Kringle Danish pasty shop.