The house at 1151 South Main Street in Cheshire was built c. 1790-1800. It was the home of Amasa Hitchcock (1739-1827), a veteran of the French & Indian War [not to be confused with another Amasa Hitchcock (1768-1835), Cheshire’s first post master, whose house on South Main Street is no longer standing]. The house remained in the Hitchcock family until 1975.
At 366 Main Street South and Doolittle Hill Road in Woodbury is a house built c. 1823-1824 by brothers Benjamin and George Doolittle. The brothers divided the house equally between them, including the basement (the house is on a hill and there is an entrance to it on the left side of the house, not visible in the image above), where Benjamin and George each had a Dutch oven. During the War of 1812, Benjamin Doolittle (1798-1868) was a drummer boy with the New Haven Grays. He became a cabinetmaker, manufacturing chairs in Litchfield, and moved to Woodbury in 1822. He was an active member of King Solomon’s Lodge, No. 7, of Free and Accepted Masons and of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. From 1854 he ran an express business between Woodbury and New Haven, as well as routes to other points, such as Waterbury. He died en route to New Haven in 1868. The house remained in the Doolittle family until George’s widow, Betsey Collier Moore Doolittle, died in the Blizzard of 1888.
The house at 76 Jewett Street in Ansonia has been called the Prindle-Goldstein House by John Poole of the website/blog, A Preservationist’s Technical Notebook. The house was built c. 1795-1796 on land purchased in 1795 by brothers Joseph and Mordecai Prindle, the latter residing in the house. The brothers were sea captains and partners in a ship chandlery in Stratford. According to A History of the Old Town of Stratford and the City of Bridgeport, Part I (1886) by Samuel Orcutt:
In the year 1805, Josiah, Mordecai and Joseph H. Prindle, brothers, came from Derby and established in this store the West India business. They had three vessels employed in carrying out corn meal, horses and cattle, and bringing back rum, sugar and molasses. They lost two schooners in the fall of 1808, in a hurricane, with full cargoes of stock and corn meal, and all persons on board perished. As the result of these losses they failed, and gave up the business
Capt. Mordecai Prindle and a crew of seven were on one of those vessels caught in a September gale off Cape Hatteras. As related in The History of the Old Town of Derby, Connecticut, 1642-1880 (1880), by Samuel Orcutt and Ambrose Beardsley,
it is mentioned that a kildeer out of season perched upon the window sill of Mrs. Prindle’s house, which stood near Dr. Mansfield’s, and was heard to sing distinctly several times, in plaintive notes, and then disappear. [This was taken as a sign portending death.] Mrs. Prindle was deeply affected, and declared that her husband was that moment sinking beneath the merciless waves. From that day to this Captain Prindle, his seven men and vessel have not been heard from.
The house was next owned by William Mansfield, a son of Rev. Richard Mansfield. It then passed to Rev. Stephen Jewett (1783-1861), who assisted the ailing Rev. Mansfield and then succeeded him as Rector of Derby’s Episcopal Church. Jewett Street is named for him. Rev. Jewett ran a preparatory school in the house for young men intending to study at college to enter the ministry. In 1834 he moved to New Haven. The house passed through a number of owners until 1864, when it was acquired by Frederick C. Goldstein and his wife, Sophia Elizabeth, who had arrived from Germany six years earlier. Their son, Dr. Frederick C. Goldstein (1869-1928), later served as health officer and school physician for the City of Ansonia.
The oldest sections of the house at 1365 Main Street in Coventry date to 1750, but the Federal-style main section, which includes a rooftop monitor, was built c. 1800. Now used as offices and remodeled for that purpose, the house is named for a prominent early-nineteenth-century resident. In 1815, John Boynton (1783-1863) started a mill that manufactured wool carding machines of his own patent. Boynton was also a deacon of the Congregational Church.
The Sumner-Carpenter House, located at 333 Old Colony Road in Eastford, is a well-preserved example of a large rural Federal period house. It was built c. 1806 for John Newton Sumner (1776-1831), a farmer and land-owner who was active in local civic affairs. In 1815 he was one of the incorporators of the Sprague Manufacturing Company. The builder of the house was Vini Goodell, who also built the Benjamin Bosworth House in Eastford. The year before his death, Sumner sold the house and associated farm to Asa Bosworth. David P. Carpenter purchased the house and farm in 1882 and it remained in his family for three generations, until 1969. The Carpenters maintained a large herd of Devon cattle for their dairy farm. The house has a side ell, built along with or not long after the main block, and a rear wing built c. 1900.
In the first half of the nineteenth century, Ashford Green was the active center of the Town of Ashford. Today, only one building survives from that time: the Ashford Academy, built in 1825. The first floor served as one of the town’s district schoolhouses (the Fifth School District). This schoolhouse was already being planned when a group of local citizens raised money by private subscription to add a second floor for use as a private academy for more advanced students. Academy sessions were held until 1875, after which the building served exclusively as a public school until 1949. Today the Ashford Historical Society uses the building for educational activities and to display some of their artifacts.
The Willington Baptist Church was organized on December 18, 1828 and the Baptist Meeting House was completed the following year. Albert Sharp, a local carpenter, was the builder. Members of an earlier Baptist church, established in the north part of town, joined the congregation of the new church. A conference room and Sunday school room were added to the building in 1842. Willington’s Baptist and Congregational Churches merged in 1911 to form the Federated Church of Willington. The federated congregation built the Clara Hall Elliott Memorial Church that same year and sold the old Congregational church building to the town in 1924. The Federated Church holds services in two buildings, from late September to Easter Sunday in the Hall Memorial Church and in the summer at the former Baptist Meeting House, now called the Hill Church.
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