Atwater Homestead (1774)

The house at 242 Christian Street in Wallingford was built in 1774 by Caleb Atwater (1741–1832), a wealthy merchant who supplied the patriot forces during the American Revolution. It was located on the Atwater property, which was in the family for many generations. There is a secret passage behind the chimney inside the house, which was possibly a station on the Underground Railroad. The Atwood family property, which became known as Rosemary Farm, was later the childhood home and summer residence of Caleb Atwater’s granddaughter, Mary Lyman Atwater. She married Judge William G. Choate. In 1890, Mary Choate founded a school for girls at Rosemary Farm called Rosemary Hall. The school initially utilized another Atwater family home, no longer extant, that was built in 1758. Soon other houses in the vicinity were rented for the growing school. William Choate also founded the Choate School for boys in 1896. The two schools were neighbors, but remained separate entities. Mary wold host dances for students of both schools at the 1774 homestead. Rosemary Hall moved to Greenwich in 1900, but would move back to Wallingford in 1971 and merge with Choate in 1974. Choate had acquired the Atwater Homestead from Hunt Atwater, a nephew of Mary Atwater Choate in 1933 and it has served as a dormitory since 1936. The school undertook a major restoration of the building, known as Homestead, in 2006.

Chilson-Bailey House (1750)

The house at 19 High Street in Middlefield is thought to have been built c. 1750 by Asaph Chilson adjacent to his parents’ house on land they then owned. Asaph acquired ownership of the property, including both houses, in 1756 (his parents had moved to another house the previous year). He sold the property in 1759 to John Lyman and Abraham Camp, whose half-shares were soon acquired by Samuel Russell. In 1770, Russell sold the property (now having only one dwelling house) to Richard Miller. It remained in Miller’s family until it was acquired by Oliver Bailey in 1813. Bailey was married to Anna Wetmore, whose mother had been Richard Miller’s first wife. The surrounding neighborhood would become known as Baileyville after Oliver and Anner’s grandson, Alfred M. Bailey, who contributed to the area’s industrial development, building a dam at Lake Beseck c. 1850.

Joseph Hurlburt House (1760)

Now a two-family home, the house at 91-93 Burnside Avenue in East Hartford was built c.1760-1775 by a member of the Hurlburt family, probably Joseph Hurlburt (1744-1796). The property passed to his son Nathaniel (died 1819) and then to another son, Luman Hurlburt (1788-1865). Joseph served seven terms as town clerk and Luman served six terms as town selectman. Luman‘s son, Joseph Olmstead Hurlburt (1822-1899), heavily mortgaged the house after his father’s death and it was soon sold out of the family. Both Luman and James Olmstead Hurlburt served as state representatives, in 1841 and 1863 respectively. As related in the Commemorative Biographical Record of Hartford County, Vol. I (1901):

Joseph O. Hurlburt, the father of this family, received his education in East Hartford, and for several years taught in the old North school, Hartford. During the last twenty years of his life he was principal of the Wethersfield high school, and he died March 18, 1899. He was a member of the County and State Teachers Association.

Henry E. Bidwell House (1799)

The house at 55 Barry Road in Oxford was built in 1799 by James Dorman, who sold it the following year to George Cable. This sale included half-interest in a sawmill and gristmill, called Burrell Mills, located across the road along Eight Mile Brook. For a century, owners of the house would also own the mill, which is no longer in existence. The house has had many owners over the years, but was long known as the Bidwell Place, named for Henry E. Bidwell (1804-1883), who bought the house c. 1837. His family sold it in 1885. In the 1930s, the property, known as Petticoat Farm, was owned by H. Reinhardt Lewis, an artist who painted the local landscape. Built into a hillside, the house has an extra story in the rear.

Elam Case House (1790)

The house at 271 Cherry Brook Road in Canton was built c. 1790 by Sgt. Daniel Case for his son, Elam Case (1772-1848). The upstairs fireplace has “ELAM” carved in the stone base. A later owner, William Elliot, built a pool to replace an ice pond that was destroyed in the Hurricane of 1938. The pool is fed by a brook that comes downhill through a pine grove set out by Benjamin F. Case, Elam’s grandson, who was born in the house. As related in Reminiscences (1908), by Sylvester Barbour:

Mr. Rollin D. Lane, a Canton boy, early orphaned by the death of his father, relates to me a pleasing incident in the life of another of those early Canton men, Mr. Elam Case, grandfather of Benjamin F. Mr. Case’s family lost a little household article, of no great value, and Rollin happened to find it, and he promptly returned it. Mr. Case proceeded to reward him, and, in doing that, to leave on the boy’s mind an impression that would probably never be effaced. He said to the lad, handing out 25 cents: “Here are 12½ cents for your finding the article, and 12½ cents for your honesty in returning it.” In those days one of the pieces of silver money was one stamped 12½ cents, and commonly called ninepence. Such a fatherly address of commendation of a good deed is worthy of imitation by actual parents.

Benjamin Adams House (1760)

A sign on the house at 355 Middletown Avenue in Wethersfield notes that it was “Built About 1760 by Benjamin Adams” (it may also date to 1766 or 1794). Benjamin Adams (1735-1816) was a carpenter who built several houses in the south end of town and assisted in building the Rev. James Lockwood House. Later, he operated the Chester Mill. The house remained for several generations in the Adams family, being the birthplace of Benjamin’s great-grandson, Judge Sherman Wolcott Adams (1836-1898). During the Civil War, Adams served as acting assistant paymaster of the U.S. Navy. After the War, he served in the state legislature, was for six years was associate judge of the Hartford police court, and served as president of Hartford’s park commissioners, during which time he worked actively for the erection of the Soldier and Sailors Memorial Arch. The sign, mentioned above, notes the house was his birthplace and describes him as “Author of Wethersfield Histories.” Adams wrote several chapters in the Memorial History of Hartford County (2 vols., 1886). He also wrote about the Maritime History of Wethersfield. His extensive historical collections were used as the major source for Henry R. Stiles’ History of Ancient Wethersfield.

Henry Barbour House (1760)

The house at 225 Barbourtown Road in Canton began as a story-and-a-half house, built around 1760 by Moses Gaines, who was married to Lucy Barber. He sold it to John Barber, Jr., in 1775. It was acquired by Henry Barber/Barbour in 1819 and in 1822 he added the second floor and attic, reusing the original attic beams. The house was later owned by the Gillette family. In 1930, Kent Gillette sold the house and extensive property to F. Morgan Cowles, Jr., who used it as a summer home. Frederic (Ted) Morgan Cowles III, moved into the house with his wife, Jan, in 1987. They constructed an addition that is now rented out. In 2007, the couple donated an easement of about 32 acres of the property to the Canton Land Conservation Trust to preserve it from development. (more…)