Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Colonial

Samuel Lay House (1732)

Samuel Lay married Hannah Hayden in 1726. In 1732, they built a house at 57 Main Street in Essex, near the boat wharf. It was on this property that the earliest Lay home in Essex had been built. The Lay House had numerous owners over the years. By the turn of the twentieth century it had become a crowded tenement. In 1907 it was leased to the Dauntless Yacht Club, which is now located across the street. The house was remodeled in 1939. Among later twentieth century residents was the author Hartzell Spence. In 2012 the house was acquired by the neighboring Connecticut River Museum.

Nathaniel Talcott House (1745)

The house at 2082 Main Street in Glastonbury was built in 1745 for Nathaniel Talcott (a stone in its foundation has the date 1745 and the initials NT). Nathaniel Talcott served as Captain of the militia, was in the General Assembly and was town assessor.

Moses Rowe House (1767)

The Moses Rowe House is located at 78 South Main Street in Suffield. It is a colonial house, built in 1767, that was later altered in the Greek Revival style, when the roof was also raised.

The Quiet House (1766)

The house at 711 Main Street in Plymouth Center was built in 1765-1766 and was owned by Major David Smith, who served with George Washington at Valley Forge. Washington stayed at this house in September 1780 on his way to meet the Comte de Rochambeau in Hartford. The house was later (c. 1850) operated as an inn by A.B. Curtiss and, after his death, by his widow. It was called it the Quiet House because alcohol was not served. As related in the History of the town of Plymouth, Connecticut (1895):

A. B. Curtiss was born in the town of Plymouth in 1819, and died at the age of sixty-seven. While a boy he entered the store of Edwin Talmadge as clerk, and his aptness for business and pleasant manners so commended him to his employer that when he became of age he was taken into partnership. The firm did a large business for those days, but unfortunate endorsements caused their downfall. Mr. Curtiss started in business again in the Stephen Mitchell store, but soon after bought the property where he died, remodeled the house, and opened a hotel. Except for a couple of years, when he kept the Brown hotel in Waterbury, he had for forty years welcomed strangers to his house and catered to their wants. He was well fitted for a landlord by his care to have everything pleasant, his genial hearty manners and business like ways. He was a benevolent, public spirited man. always ready to do his full share in common enterprises. His later years were full of suffering, yet to the last he had a bright and cheery word for each friend and acquaintance. Mrs. A. B. Curtiss still keeps the doors of the Quiet house open to strangers and travelers, some of whom often travel out of their way to indulge in the homelike accommodations that are to be had there.

Nathaniel Johnson House (1730)

The Nathaniel Johnson House is a large saltbox house with a later Greek Revival doorway. Built in 1730, it is located at 58 Fair Street in Guilford. The leading Episcopalian in town, Johnson helped to establish Christ Church in Guilford. He was the brother of Samuel Johnson, an Anglican clergyman and the first president of King’s College (later Columbia) in New York.

Porter Cook House (1789)

At 38 North Elm Street in Wallingford is the Porter Cook House. As recorded in Porter Cook‘s diary (and quoted in the WPA report on the house):

In 1789, Octrober 3, Saturday my new house on Lower Town St. was raised. Samuel Doolittle of Pond Hill hued and fraimed the house, and Timothy Carrington and his son Lemuel clapboarded and shinggled the house. Col. Isaac Cook dighed the sellar wall, Zebilon Potter of this town near Tyler Cook’s East, North of this Town, made the brick. Trobridge and Jordan of New Haven put up my chimney, topt it of in eight days. (Up to Oct. 29, 1790, Bill Brout in and settled $17.00) Captain John Mansfield of Wallingford did the inside work, with them and Abel Mansfield, son to John Mansfield.

A farmer, Cook donated land for Union Academy in Wallingford in 1812.

William Southmayd House (1747)

At 73 Main Street in Middletown is a house (pdf) that originally stood on William Street. It was built in 1747 for William Southmayd, who died before it was completed. His widow, Mehitable, was the house’s first occupant. It remained a residence until 1975 and was then slated for demolition. The house was saved in 1977, when it was moved to its current address and converted to serve as offices.

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