Thomas Drakeley, Jr. House (1725)

Drakely House

The sign on the house at 55 Good Hill Road in Woodbury displays a date of 1685. That was the year Thomas Drakeley, Sr came to Woodbury. He gave one third of his property to his son, Thomas in 1725 and the house was probably built circa 1725-1730. The Drakeley family owned the house until 1918. The West Side School house once stood across from the Drakeley House. It is said that the school had no water so that the children had to use the Drakeleys’ well.

Second John Kentfield House (1784)

Second John Kentfield House

The substantial house at 93 Broad Street in East Hartford was built by Capt. John Kentfield (1743-1804) between 1784 and 1792. He had earlier built the house at 119 Naubuc Avenue, not far away. A later owner of the house on Broad Street was Josiah White, from Gildersleeve in Portland. Josiah married Rebecca Hills of East Hartford; his brother George and cousin Daniel married two of Rebecca’s sisters. Josiah White moved to Oneida County, New York in 1812.

Yeoman-Taylor House (1732)

Yeoman-Taylor House

The oldest section of the building at 22 Knowles Road at Knowles Landing in Middle Haddam is possibly a house built on the site c. 1732-1735 by Jonathan Yeoman. For ten years (1735-1745), Yeoman ran a ferry across the Connecticut River. In 1747 the ferry licence was granted to Capt. Cornelius Knowles, for whom Knowles Landing is named. Jeremiah Taylor bought the Yeoman property in 1804, remodeling and expanding it in 1805 to serve as a tavern with a second-floor ballroom spanning the length of the building. The original one-and-a-half story, gambrel-roofed house became a two-and-a-half gable roofed structure. Taylor owned the building until 1826. The Italianate side veranda is a later addition. Jeremiah Taylor’s son, James Brainerd Taylor, was a minister during the Second Great Awakening whose life was a frequently used example of evangelical Protestant spirituality.

Croucher-Richmond House (1780)

Croucher-Richmond House

The traditional date for the house at 886 Main Street North in Southbury is 1715, although it was more likely to have been built around 1780. The earliest owners are not known, but it passed through several families in the nineteenth through early twentieth century. In 1938 it was bought by Daniel and Marguerite Croucher. By then the house’s condition had deteriorated. The Crouchers rehabilitated the house in the Colonial Revival style, removing Victorian-era additions, which included a front porch. Daniel Croucher was a New York City antiques dealer. He acquired the neighboring White Oak School House in 1940. From 1954 to 1964 the house was owned by Helena Penrose, another New York antiques dealer. Howard and Priscilla Richmond, also antiques dealers, acquired the house from Penrose’s estate in 1965. They used the former school house as their antiques shop. Before retiring to Southbury in 1957, where he started a second career in the antiques business, Howard K. Richmond had been a graphic designer and art director in New York. He created the original layout and logo for Life magazine in 1936. He also did advertising and publicity work for Lord & Taylor, Bloomingdale’s, Elizabeth Arden and Saks Fifth Avenue.

Dr. Joseph Foote House (1794)

Dr. Joseph Foote House

The house at 2 Church Street, corner of Broadway, in North Haven was built in 1794. Its original resident was Dr. Joseph Foote, who is described by Sheldon Brainerd Thorpe in North Haven Annals (1894):

Prior to 1760 but little is known of the medical history of the parish. In that year Dr. Walter Munson came here and is the first known practitioner. In 1790 he was the regularly established physician of the town. In the latter year, a rival entered his field, in the person of Dr. Joseph Foot, born in Northford, Conn., 1770.

Dr. Foot was hopeful and enthusiastic, and his devotion to his calling, gave him in a brief time a place among the North Haven people. Dr. Munson abandoned the field in a few years and his successor thus became fully installed as the “town physician.” He purchased of the widow of the tory Lemuel Bradley, the corner, now known as the Cowles property, and in 1794 began the erection of the present dwelling.

Having made a home ready, he married Mary Bassett of Hamden, February 16, 1797. [. . .] Dr. Griggs says of her: “She came to do her husband good; she was a prudent woman from the Lord; she was not content to promote his temporal interests, she endeavored to win him to Christ by her own consistent piety.”

These counsels, it is recorded, he did not always heed. It was not until her death, after only four years of married life, in which two children, Mary and Jared, were born, that he realized her value. Her loss proved in a measure his salvation. He became thoughtful attentive to his Bible, and a participant in many religious duties.

His second wife was Eunice Foote of Northford Conn., second cousin to him and likewise a descendant of Nathaniel Foote. Her he married January 26, 1803. Four children were born of this union [. . .]

As a physician his skill early won for him the confidence of the public. He was highly esteemed by his medical brethren. His specialty was the
treatment of febrile diseases.

At his advent here, his sole possessions were a horse and a watch. He accumulated a goodlv property by his industry. His circuit was not confined to
North Haven, for he frequently visited Durham, Wallingford, Cheshire, North Branford, “Dragon,” Hamden, and had he so chosen, could have farther widened his area of practice. His charges were moderate, from twenty-five cents to half a dollar being the usual fee for a professional call, except in cases at long distance. The main stock remedies he always carried, esteeming it a hardship to compel his patrons to ride to New Haven for medicines which he could easily carry in his “saddle-bags” or tin box. He died April 24, 1836, aged 66 years, and was buried in the old cemetery. An imposing red granite obelisk marks his resting place, on the south face of which is written:

AN EMINENT CHRISTIAN PHYSICIAN.

The house was later owned by Rev. Orson Cowles and then by Frank L. Stiles, a wealthy brick manufacturer, who also built a house on Broadway in North Haven.