Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Federal Style

Storrs Hall House (1834)

At 104 East Avenue in Norwalk is a brick house built c. 1834 by Henry Selleck. By 1847 it was the residence of Storrs Hall A.M., who ran the English & Classical School in the house. He is described in Norwalk (1896), by Rev. Charles M. Selleck:

Dr. Hall graduated at Middlebury College, Vermont, and afterwards engaged in academic work in Connecticut. He was the brother of the learned Edwin Hall, D. D., the pastor for twenty-three years of the First Congregational Church in Norwalk, in which town Dr. Storrs Hall established a private of school of high grade, and remained for a number of years its able and successful head. He subsequently studied medicine at Yale University, New Haven, and leaving the east established himself as a physician in Rosendale, Wis. In 1860 he was elected a Trustee of Ripon College, Wisconsin, and four years later chosen Secretary of the Board of Trustees of the same institution. His life has been spent along scholastic lines, and he is now, at the age of four and eighty, industriously engaged in professional work.

Although surrounded by modern development, the old farmhouse at 750 Main Street South in Southbury has survived and is now home to the Carpino Funeral Home. The house was built in 1799 by Amos Johnson (1753-1824), but the kitchen ell on the south side is likely several decades older. Amos Johnson was a soldier in the Revolutionary War and later a town selectman.

Benjamin P. Downs House (1835)

Local tradition holds that the house at 657 South Britain Road in Southbury was built c. 1770, but it is more likely that it was built c. 1835 by Benjamin P. Downs on the site of his family’s old homestead. In 1854 he sold the house to Sally Curtiss, widow of George Curtiss, so it is also known as Mrs. S. Curtiss House. It was extensively restored by Henry Bassett, who acquired the house in 1946.

Timothy Baldwin House (1819)

The house at 186 Damascus Road in Branford was built by Timothy Baldwin on an eighteen acre farm deeded to him by his father, Zacheus Baldwin. It was probably constructed around 1819, the year he married Jerusha Tyler. They had four children. The house was in the Baldwin family until 1913.

Jehiel Risley House (1797)

The brick house at 237 Naubuc Avenue in East Hartford was built around 1797 by Jehiel “Hiel” Risley (1767-1844), a sea captain from Glastonbury. The house was raised around 1840 from a one-story gambrel roof to a two-story gable roof. In an otherwise symmetrical arrangement, the house’s front doorway and the window above are noticeably left of center.

Seth Bishop House (1796)

The house at 64 Fair Street in Guilford was built in 1796 by Seth Bishop. He soon mortgaged the house to brothers Joel and Nathaniel Griffing and sold it in 1801 to Captain Joel Griffing (1762-1826). His brother, Judge Nathaniel Griffing (1767-1845), lived in a similar house nearby at 6 Fair Street that Joel had previously owned. From 1802 to 1825, the south chamber on the second floor of the Bishop House (which has a ceiling a foot higher than the other rooms) and two adjacent rooms, were used for meetings of St. Alban’s Lodge No. 38, a Masonic Lodge that now meets in Branford. A history of the Lodge indicates that on several occasions, meeting were canceled so as not to disturb a sick member of the Griffing family.

Timothy Dwight Mills House (1833)

Built around 1833 by Timothy Dwight Mills, the house at 184 Deerfield Road in Windsor is an example of one of the many brick houses constructed in town in the early nineteenth century. Timothy Dwight Mills (1803-1846), who married Sarah Welles, was a farmer and brickmaker. His brothers, Samuel Webster Mills and Oliver Williams Mills, also had houses on Deerfield Road. The porch was added in 1910.