Church’s Tavern (1738)

Church’s Tavern, also known as the Old Post Tavern and the Risley House, is a colonial house at 11 Main Street South in Bethlehem. While Aaron Burr was a student at Dr. Joseph Bellamy‘s theological school in Bethlehem, he mentioned the house in a letter to his sister dated January 17, 1774. The letter is quoted in volume 1 of James Parton’s The Life and Times of Aaron Burr (1893):

P. M., 2 o’clock.—I have just been over to the Tavern to buy candles; there I saw six slay-loads of Bucks & Bells, from Woodberry, and a happier company I believe there never was; it really did me good to look at them. They were drinking Cherry Rum when I entered the room, and I easily perceived that both Males and Females had enough to keep them in Spirits. The Females especially looked too immensely goodnatured to say no to anything. And I doubt not the Effects of this Frolic will be very visible a few Months hence.

Parker Homestead (1777)

At 640 Wormwood Hill Road in Mansfield is a house originally built by Capt. Richard Fletcher (1736-1812) and sold, in 1777, to Zachariah Parker, Jr., who farmed on the property. The house would remain in the Parker family until 1901. Zachariah passed it to his eldest son, Thomas Parker, who had five sons and one daughter with his wife, Hannah Atwood Parker. The elder brothers, Miner and Pliny, married, but the three younger brothers did not. Their sister, Hannah Parker (1804-1895), kept house for her brothers at the Parker Homestead, where she lived until her death. Hannah Parker also taught school at Wormwood Hill and professed to be the first female teacher in Mansfield. Her nieces and nephews inherited the house and sold it in 1901 to Gertrude Cantor of New York. She and her sister, Alice Cantor, ran the property as a summer boarding house. To make more room for their many guests, the sisters raised the house from its original one-and-a-half stories to a full two stories. (more…)

Oliver Boardman House (1785)

The house at 168 North Street in Litchfield is described in Historic Litchfield, 1721-1907 (1907), by Alice T. Bulkeley, as follows:

Retracing our steps down North street toward the center, the next house of historical interest is the Lord house, built in 1785 by Oliver Boardman on Glebe Land. The east side of North street, from the corner of East street to the Lord house, was owned by the church and called Glebe Land.

The land on which the house was built was either leased by or sold to Boardman by the church authorities, and bought of him by Sylvester Spencer, Litchfield’s former real estate dealer. It was also owned by Samuel Beach, who sold it to George Lord, the brother of Augustus, who with his sister resided there until his death at the age of eighty-seven. His sister, Miss Lord, occupied the home until her death in the Spring of 1907 at the age of 80 years and 11 months, when the house descended to her nieces. The side doorstep, an immense block of stone, was brought from Salisbury, requiring twelve pair of oxen to draw it.

Arad Simons House (1778)

At 78 Atwoodville Road, in the Atwoodville (formerly East Mansfield) section of Mansfield, is a house built in 1778 by Arad Simons. Born in 1754, he married Bridget Arnold in 1775. Arad Simons was in the Connecticut Marine Service and was later a civil engineer. The house has had many owners over the years, including Elisha Fenton (1774-1864), a blacksmith, and his wife, Philata Storrs, whose family lived there in the first half of the nineteenth century.

Dr. Calvin Chapin House (1785)

The house at 79 Elm Street in Rocky Hill was built in 1785 for Rev. John Lewis, who was minister of Stepney Parish (now Rocky Hill) from 1781 until his death in 1792. The house was purchased by Rev. Lewis’s successor as minister, Dr. Calvin Chapin, in two transactions. In 1795, Dr. Chapin bought 2/3 interest from the guardian of the Lewis children, who were minors, for 333 pounds, 10 shillings. In 1799, he bought the remaining 1/3 from the widow of Rev. Lewis. According to the Memorial History of Hartford County, Vol. II (1886):

[Rev. Calvin Chapin, D.D.] was a native of Springfield, Mass.; was graduated at Yale College in 1788; studied theology with the Rev. Nathan Perkins, D.D., of West Hartford; was licensed to preach in 1791; a tutor at Yale College until 1794, and had the educational charge of Jeremiah Day, afterward its president. He was installed at Stepney, April 30, 1794. He preached there until Thanksgiving Day, 1847. His office closed with his death, in March, 1851.

The late Rev. Noah Porter, D.D., of Farmington, said of Dr. Chapin: “He was distinguished for exactness, enterprise, and humor, and a constant interest in all Christian and benevolent enterprises.” From its organization, in 1810, until his death, he was Secretary of the A. B. C. F. M. [American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions] In 1826, as “Missionary,” he made the tour of the Western Reserve, Ohio; publishing a pamphlet giving the results of his observation. When the Connecticut State Temperance Society was organized, in 1829, he was made chairman of its executive committee. As a humorist he was keen, kind, and incisive.

It was during Dr. Chapin’s ministry, in 1808, that the present Congregational meeting-house was built.

During his pastorate, the Town of Rocky Hill was incorporated in 1843. Library service in Rocky Hill had begun on December 11, 1794 at a meeting held at the Chapin House. Dr. Chapin was also actively involved in the building of Academy Hall in 1803. A book entitled Appreciation of Calvin Chapin, D. D., of Rocky Hill, Conn. was published in 1908. The Chapin House has an Italianate front porch and two bay windows, all added later in the nineteenth century. (more…)