Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Federal Style

Charles Shepard House (1824)

At 60 South Main Street in Suffield is the house built in the Federal style for Charles Shepard in 1824. Shepard was a lawyer who practiced in Suffield from 1820 to 1829 and in Hartford from 1830 to 1850. He also represented Suffield in the state assembly from 1826 to 1828. The house was later home to the Fuller family. According to “The Town of Suffield,” by David E. Tarn (The White Pine Series of Architectural Monographs, Vol. VII, No. 6, December, 1921):

The Charles Shepard house is distinguished by its very graceful porch, of which the balustrade, however, would appear to be a later addition. The general proportions of this house, and especially the pitch of the roof, are distinctly of Connecticut.

Warren Congregational Church (1818)

When Warren was settled in 1737 it was still part of the Town of Kent. A separate ecclesiastical society, called the Society of East Greenwich, was established in 1750 and Warren was incorporated as a town in 1786. Early church services were conducted in a log schoolhouse, located about a mile west of the present center of Warren. In December 1767, services moved to a still unfinished meeting house, which was completed in 1769. By 1815, the building was in such disrepair that the congregation voted to build a new one, sited slightly behind the earlier structure. The current Warren Congregational Church (4 Sackett Hill Road) was built between 1818 and 1820.

Ichabod Bradley House (1813)

The house at 537 Shuttle Meadow Road in Southington is believed to have been built by Ichabod Bradley in 1813. Ichabod Bradley (1764-1832) was a successful farmer in the northeastern corner of Southington. He came to Southington with his father in 1779 and married Abigail, daughter of Roswell Moore, in 1788. He was the father of Amon Bradley, an industrialist who became one of Southington‘s most prominent citizens.

Farmington Academy/Union Hall (1816)

At the corner of Church and Hart Streets in Farmington is the old Farmington Academy building, also called Union Hall. It was constructed in 1816 by builder Samuel Dickinson and served as a community assembly hall (Union Hall), a chapel for the Congregational Church and the Farmington Academy, a school operated by the church until the 1840s. In the years before the Civil War, the building’s second floor hall was rented out to both abolitionist and anti-abolitionist groups. Women who were church members gathered here in 1841 to sew clothing for the Africans of the Amistad. Later in the nineteenth century, the building was used as town hall, library and meeting place. The Academy building originally stood next to the church, where the Sarah Porter Memorial Building stands today. It was moved a short distance in 1900 to make way for the Porter Memorial and again in 1917 to its present site to make way for the Barney Library. From 1900 to 1917 it was used to house a school for girls run by Theodate Pope. More recently, the building has been home to the Farmington Art Guild. Update: It is now a private residence (see comment below):

Pinney Tavern (1826)

The Pinney Tavern, located at 7 Robertsville Road in Riverton, Barkhamsted, is a Federal-style residence, which served for a time as a tavern and inn. Built in 1828, it was originally the home of D.C.Y. Moore (Marquis De Casso Y Rujo Moore), a physician and son of Apollos Moore. One of several brick houses built in Riverton for members of the Moore family, the house was later given by Apollos Moore to his daughter Nancy (1798-1889), who married Rueben Pinney (for whom the tavern was named). Their daughter, Jeanette, married Charles Miller Coe and the house was later home to their son, Leon Apollos Coe, a mechanic who resided in Riverton after 1890.

Farnham Parmelee House (1818)

The former residence, now a gift shop, at 12 North Main Street in Essex, was originally located about 150 feet south of its current location. Built by Farnham Parmelee in 1818, it was purchased by Jacob Arkin in 1919, who moved it to make way for the Arkin Block, a brick commercial building.

David Pamelee House (1807)

Not to be confused with the earlier David Parmelee House next door (68 Water Street; built in 1780), the David Parmelee House at 74 Water Street in Guilford is a Federal house, built in 1807 by architect Abraham Coan for the younger David Pamelee, who was a blacksmith. The house has a rear ell thought to have once been part of an outbuilding dating to c. 1640 which belonged to Samuel Desborough, an original settler of Guilford.