Colonial - Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Medad Stone Tavern (1803)

Medad Stone was born in Guilford in 1754 and later inherited his father’s tavern on the northwest corner of the Green. Stone was also part-owner of a stage company that carried public mail. Road conditions at the time were bad and in 1803 Stone and his partners petitioned the General Assembly to reroute the Boston Post Road. Confident that the alterations would be made, Stone built a large new tavern of Dutch Colonial design along the proposed route. Located in the West Side of Guilford (modern address 197 Three Mile Course), the tavern had fourteen rooms and ten fireplaces. Although Medad Stone battled for ten years to get his turnpike proposal accepted, the change was never made and the new tavern never opened. Stone, who died in 1815, began farming activities there, which were continued by Joel Davis, who bought the property from Stone’s daughter in 1843. His great-grandson Leonard Davis Hubbard (1909-2001) bequeathed the Tavern to the Guilford Keeping Society in 2001. It was restored to its 1803 appearance and was opened as a museum by the GKS, which also owns the Thomas Griswold House.

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Phelps-Bingham Barn (1780)

According to the barn survey information at Historic Barns of Connecticut, the barn at 41 Hebron Road in Andover dates to 1780. An English side-entry barn, it was moved to its current address from further up the road. Its owner dismantled and rebuilt it in 1998 to reflect its original period. The nomination for the Andover Center Historic District dates the barn to c. 1850. The barn is associated with the Phelps-Bingham House, a colonial house across the street.

Mitchell Double House (1752)

At 545-547 South Britain Road in Southbury is a double house, unusual for a rural location, built in 1752. It has (probably later) Federal-style elements, including the entryway. The house was built by Zephania Clark and was home to M. M. Canfield and C. Muirhill. A later owner, Deacon Mitchell, left the house to his two sons. There was once a grist mill on the property, built c. 1796.

Capt. Nathaniel Loomis House (1752)

Built in 1752, the saltbox house at 1174 Windsor Avenue in Windsor was the home of Capt. Nathaniel Loomis. This may be Capt. Nathaniel Loomis III (1719-1784). A Windsor Historical Society House Tour in 2010 included the Loomis House, where visitors could hear Harriet Loomis (1784-1876) describe the hardships of the Revolutionary War. I don’t know her relationship to Capt. Nathaniel Loomis.

Dr. Simeon Field House (1763)

According to the sign on the house at 1346 Enfield Street in Enfield, it was “Built by Dr. Simeon Field, 1763.” Born in Longmeadow, Mass. in 1731, Dr. Field built the house in the same year he married Margaret Reynolds. According to Vol. I of the Field Genealogy (1901), by Frederick Clifton Pierce (a work dedicated to the famous Marshall Field of Chicago), Dr. Simeon Field

graduated at Yale College as a physician. He settled in Enfield, Conn., where he was very celebrated, and had an extensive practice. He also kept a tavern which is now, 1900, still standing, and is known as the old Field tavern. He also was an active and influential man during the Revolution, and during his time was easily the most important man in his town.

His son also became a doctor, as described in the fourth volume of Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College with Annals of the College History, July 1778-June 1792 (1907), by Franklin Bowditch Dexter:

Simeon Field, the eldest child of Dr. Simeon Field, of Enfield, Connecticut, and nephew of Dr. Samuel Field (Yale 1745), was born in Enfield on June 3, 1765. His mother was Margaret, daughter of the Rev. Peter Raynolds (Harvard 1720), of Enfield, and sister of Dr. Samuel Raynolds (Yale 1750). He joined College in May of the Freshman year.

He studied medicine with his father, and settled at first in Somers, the town next east of Enfield; but about 1790, on the decline of his father’s health, he returned to Enfield, where he became locally distinguished for his valuable professional services. Though not a member of the church, he was always a stable friend and supporter of the institutions of religion.

After a feebleness of several months he died in Enfield on March 1, 1822, in his 57th year. He left no descendants, and his property, inventoried at $6833, was divided between his brothers and sisters. The honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine was conferred on him by Yale College in 1817.

Amariah Storrs House (1760)

Amariah Storrs (1728-1806), a tavern-keeper, built the house at 526 Storrs Road in Mansfield around 1760. In 1761 there were several meetings “of the proprietors of the new incorporated Township of Lebanon in the Province of Newhampshire legally warned and Convened at the house of Amariah Storrs inholder in Mansfield.” [see the History of Lebanon, N.H., by Rev. Charles A. Downs (1908) and “Early History of Lebanon” (The Granite Monthly, Vol. II/XII, Nos. 3,4, March, April 1889).] Amariah Storrs sold the house to Rev. John Sherman, who only owned for six months, in 1798-1799. The house was later owned by two carpenters: Joseph Sollace bought it in 1815 and exchanged houses with Charles Arnold in 1845. The house has been much altered over the years.

Elijah Loveland Tavern (1797)

At 944 Worthington Ridge in Berlin is the Elijah Loveland Tavern, built c. 1797. It operated as a tavern from 1797 to 1812 and had a ballroom on its north end. The place is described in Catharine Melinda North’s History of Berlin (1916):

The property opposite Galpin’s store, now the home of the Misses Julia, Sarah, and Hattie Roys, daughters of the late Franklin Roys, was long known as the Elijah Loveland place. The house was once used by Mr. Loveland as a hotel. According to George H. Sage, whose history of the “Inns of Berlin” was published in the Berlin News of May 30, 1895, Mr. Loveland received his taverner’s license in 1797, and discontinued the business in 1812. There was a large addition on the north side of the house, with a ballroom on the second floor, which was often a scene of festivity.

When Priest Goodrich was here, there was a revival in his church. It was before the chapel was built, and the extra meetings were held in Loveland’s ballroom. One cold night, when the place was crowded, the air became so close that suddenly every tallow candle went out, and all was in darkness. Mr. Goodrich, who feared that the people would attempt to go down the stairs and be injured, said in a commanding voice: “Keep still!” “Everybody keep still!” The people obeyed him and remained quietly in their seats until fresh air was admitted and the candles were again lighted.

Elijah Loveland died in 1826, at the age of eighty-one. His son George, who inherited the homestead, had five sons and three daughters: William, George, Elijah, John, Henry, Sarah, Lois, and Maria. Henry, who remained at home, remodeled the old house and tore down the north part, that in later days had been used as a tenement.

Mrs. C. B. Root, a tailoress, had for a time a shop in the lower rooms. The ballroom was used in the fifties by the Misses Pease and Stone, as a millinery and dressmaking establishment.

The bar of the tavern was in the south front room and the money was kept in a corner cupboard in the next room back. When this cupboard was removed, Mr. Loveland found beneath it handfuls of sixpences and ninepences, that had slipped through the cracks.

The building is now a private residence.