The house at 34-36 Main Street in North Stonington was built in 1795. Around 1860 it was the home of Wheeler Hakes, a shoemaker, and in the 1940s it was occupied by postmaster C. Ernest Gray.
Hakes-Gray House (1795)
Jonathan Bishop, Sr. House (1787)
Jonathan Bishop built the house at 191 State Street in Guilford in 1797. He farmed the family land with his brother, Jared, who lived at 205 State Street, the house built by their father. The farm was inherited by Jonathan Bishop, Jr., who was called “Captain” and shipped his produce to New York on a sloop he berthed at Jones Bridge. William E. Pinchbeck bought the property in 1928 and erected the longest iron-frame greenhouse ever constructed for his rose-growing business, which continues today as Roses for Autism.
Dr. Samuel Rose House (1775)
The house at 54 High Street in Coventry was built in 1775 by Dr. Samuel Rose (1748-1780). An army surgeon in the Revolutionary War, Dr. Rose married Nathan Hale‘s sister Elizabeth in 1773. In the the nineteenth century the house was used as a tavern. It remained in the Rose family until the death of Royal Rose at age 95 in 1951.
John McKinstry House (1730)
Rev. John McKinstry (1677-1754) was the first minister of Ellington’s Congregational Church. His house, most likely the oldest in Ellington, was built in 1730 and was moved to its present address at 85 Maple Street in 1815 from north of where the Hall Memorial Library was later built.
Jerijah Loomis House (1720)
The house at 234 Hebron Road in Bolton was built c. 1720 by its first owner, Jerijah Loomis (1707-1790), on land that was the original homelot of his father, Ensign Nathaniel Loomis. The house has later alterations, c. 1820, in the Greek Revival style and an addition on the right built c. 1855.
The Old Manse, Willington (1728)
The house at 4 Jared Sparks Road in Willington, built before 1739 (a twentieth-century owner determined a date of 1728), has been designated as the town’s oldest house. It may have been built by John Watson, one of the town’s original proprietors who owned the property in 1727. It later served as the Congregational Church parsonage until 1911.
C. B. Bradley House (1740)
The house at 62 Cook Hill Road in Cheshire was built c. 1740, with a wing added in the twentieth century. The house is called “The C.B. Bradley House” in Edwin R. Brown’s Old Historic Homes of Cheshire (1895). Brown writes:
This house was built by Moses Bradley, and is about 140 years old. Here, Oliver, a son, Columbus, a grandson, and Charles B., a great-grandson, resided. In this house, Stephen Rowe Bradley, a son of Moses, was born Oct. 20, 1754, and here he spent his youthful days. As a boy, he was full of mischief, and seemed naturally inclined to play tricks on others. On the turnpike, but a few rods across the lot, Moses Peck lived, in an old-fashioned, lean-tn house. One night, when the family was absent, young Bradley selected this place for one of his exploits.
Inducing other boys to join him, he took the owner’s cart, which was left in the yard, near the house, separated the parts, and, as the back roof reached to within a few feet of the ground, with the aid of ropes, he drew up to the top of the roof, first, the neap and axle, and then, in the same manner, the wheels, and then the body. These separate parts were all put together on the top of the roof, one wheel being stationed on the west roof, and the other on the east, the neap resting on the ridge boards. They then drew up in baskets a sufficient quantity of wood to fill the body of the cart. So that an ox-cart, literally filled with wood, was plainly visible on the top of this house the next morning.
The owner, Mr. Peck, upon his return home, missing his woodpile and seeing other evidence of mischief, made inquiries of his neighbors, who called his attention to the exhibition on the housetop. Mr. Peck at once exclaimed, “Those cussed boys! I’ll fix ’em! I know very well who done it.” Stephen was watching the proceedings from a window in his father’s house with evident delight. This element of mischief seemed to grow as the years increased, and his father came to the conclusion that he could do nothing with him at home, so he decided to send him to Yale College. He at once commenced his preparatory studies under the instruction of the Reverend John Foote. He entered Yale College in the year 1772. As a student at Yale, the elements of sport and mischief in his nature did not lie dormant, but were manifested on several occasions, of which we have record and which evince his natural shrewdness.
[. . .]
Stephen Rowe Bradley graduated at Yale, in the year 1775, with honors. He afterward settled in Vermont, and became one of the most popular men of that State. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1802, and continued a member for 16 years. He was prseident [sic] of this body in 1802, in 1803 in place of Aaron Burr, and in 1808 and 1809 in place of George Clinton. He died at Walpole, N. H., in 1830. aged 75 years.
A remarkable career! Youthful activity, finding expression in mischief, as a boy, became the source of energy and power in mature life.
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