Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Colonial

Capt. Elisha Scott House (1785)

The house at 240 Main Street in Farmington was built in 1785 by Captain Elisha Scott (1732-1821), who served in the Revolutionary War. Elisha’s two sons inherited the house, with Hezekiah eventually selling his portion to his younger brother Erastus. In Farmington, Connecticut, The Village of Beautiful Homes (1906) is found the following description of Capt. Erastus Scott:

Erastus Scott, the grandson of the grandson of Edmund Scott, one of the settlers of the town, was born November 6, 1787. His house still stands on land belonging to his ancestor Edmund. He was unusually prominent in the public life of the village, filling the offices of First Selectman, First Assessor, Collector of Taxes, and Constable for a long term of years, indeed, his patriarchal sway embraced pretty much all matters of public utility. His popularity was unbounded and needed no help from the ways of modern politicians. He was universally known and addressed as Capt. Scott, a title more valued in the olden time than that of any doctorate, whether of laws, theology or philosophy. He died on June 28, 1873.

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Noah Parker House (1772)

Built in 1772, the house at 113 Lake Street in Coventry, across from the entrance to the Nathan Hale Cemetery, is known as the Noah Parker House. In the early nineteenth century, the house served as an inn operated by Martin Lyman (1782-1859), who was also postmaster in 1822. Lyman purchased the house from Jeremiah Fitch in 1819 and he sold it to John Boynton in 1825. By the late 1850s, the house was owned by Ralph Crittenden and William Tibbals, makers of percussion caps and metallic cartridges. During the Civil War they were the leading manufacturers of cartridges in the United States. The house was also the post office for South Coventry in the 1920s.

Jeremiah Ripley House (1792)

At 77 Ripley Hill Road on Coventry is a house that was once home to Captain Jeremiah Ripley, who ran a store and was Connecticut’s Assistant Commissary during the Revolutionary War. The earliest part of the house was built 1762 by Nathaniel Rust Jr., and Capt. Ripley stored gunpowder in the cellar in 1777. As related in the 1912 Historic Sketch of Coventry, complied by Ruth Amelia Higgins:

The assistant commissary for the State was Jeremiah Ripley, who lived on Ripley Hill in Coventry. In May, 1777, Capt. Huntington, of Norwich, was ordered to deliver 100 barrels of Continental powder to Cap. J. Ripley, of Coventry, to be carefully kept until further orders. February 26, 1778, the same Jeremiah Ripley was directed by the General Assembly to send under a guard so soon as might be, two tons of fine powder in his hands to Ezekiel Chevers, commissary of artillery at Springfield.

Across Ripley Hill Road from the house is where 116 men of the Coventry militia assembled to march to Massachusetts in response to the Lexington Alarm of 1775. Ripley later constructed what is now the main block of the house, completed in 1792. In the early twentieth century, the house was owned by George Dudley Seymour, who restored the Nathan Hale Homestead. Seymour remodeled the interior of the Ripley House, repaneling one of the rooms with boards from one of the Nathan Hale schoolhouses.

Ezekiel Sibley House (1795)

The house at 100 Common Road in Willington is thought to have been built by Ezekiel Sibley around 1795. Beza Soule bought the property in 1818. Beza Soule (1783-1825) came from a family of stone carvers from Plymouth County, Massachusetts. His widow Mary sold the house in 1837 to Clark Noble and it remained in the noble family for until 1887.

John Tyler House (1710)

The house at 242-250 East Main Street in Branford is thought to have been built by John Tyler, Jr. around 1710-1715. A rear lean-to, added later in the eighteenth century, gives the house a saltbox shape. A later owner was James Goodrich Palmer (Jimmy Palmer), who lived in the house for twenty years and made cheese in the second floor bedroom. The house is now a bed & breakfast.

Tremko-Stebbins House (1773)

The house on the right in the picture above is the Tremko-Stebbins House, located on Route 44 in the Warrenville section of Ashford. The building on the left is a former Post Office. The house was built c. 1773 by Thomas Stebbins Sr., who bought 1/4 of an acre from Benjamin Clark. The last owner of the house was George T. Tremko, who bought it in 1946 from Abbie M. Balch (she served on the Ashford Board of School Visitors, to which she was elected in 1898). It was known as the post-master’s house because the Tremko’s were involved with the post office next door. The Town of Ashford bought the house via eminent domain in 1987 and there were plans to take it down and build a new library on the premises. The Ashford Historical Society helped to save the house and to acquire a grant to rehabilitate its exterior (this work was completed in 2014-2015). The town is waiting for another grant to rehabilitate the interior of the house, after which it can be used as a Museum and Tourist Information Center.

Thanks to Joan E. Bowley, Pres. of the AHS, for information on the house.

Elijah Sherman House (1791)

Not to be confused with another nearby Elijah Sherman House, the house at 50 Main Street South in Woodbury was erected by Deacon Elijah Sherman on land owned by Lee and Timothy Terrell. As related in the c. 1900 book Woodbury and the Colonial Homes:

The Sherman place is now occupied by Chas. Roswell, and the stone door step still bears the date May 19, 1791 A. D., chiseled on it. In the basement of this house, a tannery was located, later being moved across the street.

The house has been home to the Newell family since 1918.