Capt. Jeremiah Goodrich House (1740)

589 Main Street in Portland was the site of the c. 1720 house of Thomas White. It seems to have been replaced c. 1740 by a house constructed for Jeremiah Goodrich (1709-1793), who was part of Portland’s shipbuilding industry and active in town affairs. The house was originally a single-chimney residence that was later enlarged to have two chimneys. It was later owned by his son Hezekiah Goodrich (1745-1817). Hezekiah was a Jeffersonian Republican who was one of five men removed from office as Justice of the Peace in by the Federalist state government due to his attendance at an August 29, 1804 general meeting of Republican delegates from 97 Connecticut towns held in New Haven. At the time Connecticut was still operating under the 1662 Royal Charter, but the delegates favored the drafting of a constitution, declaring it “the unanimous opinion of this meeting that the people of this state are at present without a constitution of civil government.” Federalists were outraged at what they considered a radical and dangerous position, and they succeeded in revoking Goodrich’s commission, as described in Historical Notes on the Constitutions of Connecticut, 1639-1818 (1901) by J. Hammond Trumbull:

The result of the October election in an increased federal majority showed that the popular mind was not yet prepared for a radical change. When the General Assembly met, the leaders of the dominant party, elated by success, resolved to administer a signal rebuke to the revolutionary designs of the minority. Five justices of the peace, who had attended the republican meeting at New Haven and taken part in its proceedings, were cited to appear before the Assembly, “to shew reasons why their commissions should not be revoked,” since “it is improper,” as the preamble of the resolution sets forth, “to entrust the administration of the laws to persons who hold and teach that the government is an usurpation.”

Connecticut would finally hold a constitutional convention in 1818.

Capt. Giles Wilcox House (1786)

The center-chimney house at 455 East Street in the Westfield section of Middletown was built in 1786 by Giles Wilcox (1750-1838), a prominent citizen and militia captain, on land he had acquired from the estate of his father-in-law David Doud. The house, known as “Ashcroft,” remained in the Wilcox family until 1943, when it was acquired by the Brainard family. The house had to be repaired after an ash tree crashed through the roof during Tropical Storm Irene in 2011.

Samuel Fielding House (1750)

The gambrel-roofed colonial cape-style house at 25 Marjorie Circle in Hebron was built c. 1745-1750 by Samuel Feilding. Soon after construction it was owned by Rev. Benjamin Pomeroy (1735-1784), a congregational minister who was influenced by the First Great Awakening. In 1791 the house was acquired by Amasa Gillett, whose widow later married Benjamin Phelps (the house was later called the Widow Polly Phelps Place). Gillett’s daughter Sibyl, who lived in the house until her death at the age of 95, made bonnets and had her shop in the house in the 1850s. Earlier, in 1835 the largest room in the house was used for Miss Bradford’s school for select young ladies. There is also a gambrel-roofed barn on the property.

Jonathan Warner House (1703)

Jonathan Warner House in Portland

The earliest part of the house at 613 Main Street in Portland was constructed in 1703 for Jonathan Warner. It was one room over one room with an end chimney (a style typical of Rhode Island). The house was enlarged over the years. Behind the northwest part was a section built in 1764 by sea captain Ithamar Pelton (1744-1806). The south part of the house was added in 1912 by William Gildersleeve.

Main House, Rectory School (1795)

Now comprising part of the “Main House” on the campus of the Rectory School in Pomfret is a house erected circa 1795 for Thomas Grosvenor (1744-1825), a lawyer who served in the Revolutionary War. Wounded in his right hand at the Battle of Bunker Hill, Grosvenor ended the was as a Lieutenant Colonel. The house was remodeled and greatly enlarged in about 1885 by Thomas Skelton Harrison, a Philadelphia industrialist. In 1925, Rev. Frank H. Bigelow and his wife, founders of the Rectory School in 1920, acquired the Harrison estate to become the school’s campus. In the ensuing years they erected a complex of wood-framed colonial revival buildings on the estate, which has been the school’s campus ever since.

Postcard of The Rectory School (Main House)