Maj. Samuel Wolcott House (1750)

The house at 381 Wolcott Hill Road in Wethersfield is believed to have been built by Maj. Samuel Wolcott about 1750. The Wolcott Coat of Arms are painted on a panel over the mantel in the house’s north parlor. A later resident was Elisha Wolcott (1755-1827), a hat maker. He married Mary Welles in 1775 and soon after served in the Revolutionary War in Capt. Hanmer’s company As related in Vol. I of Henry R. Stiles’ History of Ancient Wethersfield (1904):

Elisha Wolcott, gt-gd-son of Samuel Wolcott 2nd, after some service in the army at New York in the summer and autumn of 1776, is said, at Gen. Washington’s suggestion, to have returned to his home in Wethersfield for the purpose of making hats for the soldiers — and one of the “hat blocks” used by him in this manufacture, at the old Samuel Wolcott (present Bourne) house, is still in possession of his descendants.—Letter of Mrs. J. W. Griswold.

Reynolds-Beers House (1786)

The Reynolds-Beers House is a Dutch gambrel-roofed historic home, owned by the Town of North Branford since 1997 and operated as a museum by the Totoket Historical Society. Located at 1740 Foxon Road, the house was erected in 1786 by Hezekiah Reynolds (1756-1833), who later moved to Wallingford. A painter, he was the author of Directions for House and Ship Painting (1812). By the 1930s, the house was owned by Earle Beers. There are two ells on the rear, or east, side of the house, added at different times in the nineteenth century. The south ell is in the Greek Revival style.

David Mallett Jr. House (1760)

The David Mallett Jr. House is an exceptionally well-preserved center-chimney colonial farmhouse, located at 420 Tashua Road in Trumbull, directly across from Christ Episcopal Church and Tashua Burial Ground. The Mallett family were prominent citizens in Trumbull in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, building many houses in the Tashua District: by 1867, 13 of the 36 homes in Tashua were owned by members of the family. David Mallett, Jr. (1735-1822) built his house in 1760, the year of his marriage to Rhoda French (1740-1777). He was a farmer and innkeeper. It was a difficult time for farmers in Connecticut and Mallett economized where he could. The house was built with little decorative ornamentation and Mallett displayed Yankee thrift by later reusing a former Sabbath Day House to provide an addition on the west side. This was done to accommodate his youngest son Aaron at the time of his marriage in 1805. The original entrance to the house may have been on the west side and was moved to its current placement when the addition was made. A larger addition on the east side of the house may also be a reused earlier building. Aaron Mallett (1771-1855) inherited the house after his father’s death.

Roman Fyler Tavern (1794)

The house at 153 Chapel Road in Winchester Center was originally erected as a tavern, as described in Annals and Family Records of Winchester, Conn. (1873), by John Boyd:

Roman Fyler from Torrington, bought from Martin North, Jr., the Noble J. Everitt place, a third of a mile south of the Winchester Meeting-house. In 1794, in company with Reuben Marshall, he built the Washington Hatch house at the center, in the north wing of which they kept a country store, while Mr. Fyler kept a tavern in the body of the house. About 1800 he removed to Burke, Caledonia Co., Vt., where he resided during his remaining life.

Roman Fyler sold his business to John Chester Riley. As related by Boyd, in 1800 Riley

bought of Fyler and Marshall the Washington Hatch place at the center, where he traded and kept a tavern. In 1807 he built a store at the parting of the Old Country road and the Waterbury turnpike, in which he did an extensive business until his failure in 1816. Being a Jeffersonian in politics, while most of the traders of his day and vicinity were of the Federal School, he drew in to a large extent the trade of those of his own faith in this and the neighboring towns. After his failure, he was confined on the jail limits at Litchfield for a considerable time, and continued to reside there during his remaining life. He lived a bachelor until past middle age, and married at Litchfield.

The tavern eventually became the property of Washington Hatch and was known as Hatch’s Tavern.

John Hudson House (1791)

The house at 26 Main Street in Old Mystic, Stonington was built c. 1791 by John Hudson, a tanner, on land he had acquired from Eleazer Williams in 1786. This transaction also included the gristmill across the street, at the head of the Mystic River. After his death in 1808, his son Phineas Hudson, continued the tanning business and inherited the house and mill, excepting the dower rights (1/3 of the house) of John’s widow, Mary. Two years before his death in 1811, Phineas (possibly ailing or under financial strain) sold the mill to his daughter Mary‘s father-in-law, Simon Avery. Mary bought the works back twenty-one years later. Mary married two Avery brothers. According to The Groton Avery Clan (1912), by Elroy McKendree Avery and Catharine Hitchcock Tilden Avery,

[Robert Nieles Avery] was b. Sept. 1, 1785, at Groton; m. June 19, 1806, at Groton, Mary (Polly) Hudson, dau. of Phineas and Margaret Hudson. She was b. Sept. 2, 1787, at Groton. He was a sea captain, and later a farmer. He was killed by the caving in of a sand bank, June 10, 1814. His widow m. 2d, Joseph Swan Avery, a brother of her husband. She d. Feb. 8, 1855, at Mystic.

[Joseph Swan Avery] was b. Oct., 1787, at Groton; m. Mrs. Mary (Hudson) Avery, dau. of Phineas and Margaret Hudson, and widow of his brother, Robert Niles Avery. She was b. Sept. 2, 1787, at Groton. He was a successful merchant and ship owner. She d. Feb. 8, 1855; he d. Nov. 10, 1865, both at Groton.

In 1816, Phineas’ heirs sold the house (except for Mary’s dower rights) to Jasper Latham, who added a shoe shop to the property. The house (now with the shop) was sold again in 1829.

Caleb Phelps House (1700)

Although vastly altered from its original appearance, the house at 32 Phelps Street in East Hartford is a survivor from c. 1700 and would have once looked like the Buttolph-Williams House in Wethersfield with a large center chimney. It now has a brick foundation, which indicates it was moved to its current location in the nineteenth century. The house’s history is described in Joseph O. Goodwin’s East Hartford: Its History and Traditions (1879):

The house once occupied by Capt. Joseph Goodwin, and now standing on the lane east of the post-office, is one of the oldest remaining in town. It once stood south of Mr. A. A. Waterhouse’s, and was occupied by Caleb Goodwin [(1713-1769)], who was a hypochondriacal bachelor, and died in 1769. It was moved to the site of the present house of Mr. S. O. Goodwin about the year 1800, and repaired. Afterwards it was moved to its present site. Joseph Goodwin, Sr., lived in the old brown house, which, in 1876, gave place to the house of the writer.

Goodwin’s store on Main street, for many years our post-office [no longer extant], dates from the time of the Revolution or thereabout. Its rear door came from the old Caleb Goodwin house.