Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Colonial

John D. Perkins House (1750)

The saltbox house at 21 West Town Street in Norwich was built in the second half of the eighteenth century. The earliest known owner was John D. Perkins

An early section (possibly the east end) of the house at 165 Maple Street in East Hartford may date to as early as c. 1702. The house was enlarged, probably in the 1780s, when it would have also acquired its gambrel roof. According to local tradition the house was built by Isaac Porter, who also built a house at 74 Porter Street in East Hartford.

Bushnell Farm (1678)

One of the five oldest houses in Connecticut is the Bushnell Farm house at 1445 Boston Post Road in Old Saybrook. It began as a two room, one story, thatch roofed post and beam house built by the Elder Joshua Bushnell. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as the Elisha Bushnell House and J. Frederick Kelly, in his classic Early Domestic Architecture of Connecticut (1924), calls it the Older Bushnell House. The house was expanded over the two centuries that the Bushnell family owned it. The property has a number of outbuildings, including an early eighteenth-century barn, a loom house (the Bushnells were both farmers and weavers) and a building referred to as the slave house. Maintained as a private residence in an excellent state of preservation, the property is often opened to schools, historical societies and the Connecticut River Museum Summer Camp.

Rev. Nathan Fenn House (1780)

The house at 883 Worthington Ridge in Berlin was built by Reverend Nathan Fenn (1749-1799), first minister of the Worthington parish, around the time of his ordination in 1780. As related by Catharine Melinda North in her History of Berlin (1916):

Jesse Eddy, who succeeded Mr. Fenn as owner of the property, had a large tin shop that stretched across the south yard, where many men were employed.

This shop was burned and rebuilt. Mr. Eddy was assisted in his business by his sons, George and Frederic.

One Sunday, a warm day in summer, George went with a companion to East Berlin and went in bathing at the factory pond. The water was unusually high, after a heavy rain, and George was drawn by an undercurrent over the dam and was drowned. Fifty men turned out to search for his body but it was not until after the water subsided that it was found caught in a tree.

Mr. James B. Carpenter purchased the Eddy shop and moved it down west of Deacon North’s store, where it forms the residence part of Mr. Damon’s place.
Nathaniel James married the daughter of Jesse Eddy, and, after that, the family used the house as a summer residence only, while their winters were spent in New York City.

Afterwards, the Rev. Seth Bliss owned the property for several years. It is now the residence of Charles S. Webster.

Jacob Wilson Tavern (1735)

At the northwest corner of the Boston Turnpike at 21 Bread & Milk Street in Coventry is a house built circa 1735 by John Wilson (1702-1773). After his death in 1773, the house passed to his son William (1729-1819), who married Sarah Rust, and his grandson Jacob (1749-1826), who married Hannah Dimmock in 1771. Jacob Wilson operated a tavern at the house from 1773 until 1817, when he sold the property to Joshua Frink.

Col. Joshua Huntington House (1771)

Colonel Joshua Huntington (1751-1821), a merchant and ship owner, occupied the house at 11 Huntington Lane in Norwich, built for him by his father, Jabez Huntington, in 1771. During the Revolution Joshua Huntington served as a Lieutenant in the militia at Bunker Hill. He also outfitted privateers to attack British ships. He was an agent for Wadsworth & Carter of Hartford, engaged in supplying the French army at Newport with provisions, and he had charge of the prizes sent by the French navy to Connecticut. He is described by Lydia Huntley Sigourney in Letters of Life (1866):

Colonel Joshua Huntington had one of the most benign countenances I ever remember to have seen. His calm, beautiful brow was an index of his temper and life. Let who would be disturbed or irritated, he was not the man. He regarded with such kindness as the Gospel teaches the whole human family. At his own fair fireside, surrounded by loving, congenial spirits, and in all social intercourse, he was the same serene and revered Christian philosopher.

Josiah Beers House (1778)

As described in the Town of Woodbury History Walk, by Elizabeth Computzzi and William Monti, pp. 60-61, the house at 259 Main Street South in Woodbury was built by Josiah Beers between 1778 and 1784, when it was bought by John Rutgers Marshall (1743-1789), the first Rector of St. Paul’s Church. In 1809 the house was acquired by Judge Charles B. Phelps, husband of Rev. Marshall’s daughter Elsie, from his wife’s older sister and husband. Phelps used the house for both his law office and a tavern. After his death in 1859 the house became dormitory for the neighboring Parker Academy. The roof was raised and dormer windows were added at that time. In the early twentieth century the house was the Woodbury Inn and from the late 1940s until 1980 it was Rest Haven Manor, serving as housing for the elderly. Today it is home to The Elemental Garden, an antiques store.