Captain James Thomas House (1790)

The Captain James Thomas House, which has Federal-style detailing, is on Killingworth Road, in the Ponsett District of Haddam. Capt. Thomas served in the Revolutionary War and returned to Haddam to farm on land given to him by his father, Lt. Ebenezer Thomas, in 1786. After occupying a house on Lynn Road, he moved to the one on Killingworth Road, which was completed by 1795. Rev. William C. Knowles, in his book By Gone Days in Ponsett-Haddam, Middlesex County, Connecticut: A Story (1914), writes of the house:

Large two-story house erected by Capt. James Thomas, soon after the Turnpike was opened. Was at one time a tavern. Capt. Thomas died in 1842. A few years later his son-in-law, Mr. Alfred Brainerd, came here to live. The present occupant is an enterprising Bohemian, Mr. Paul Jiroudek.

Congregational Church in Killingworth (1820)

In 1735, responding to a petition from the farmers residing in the north section of Killingworth, the town was divided into two separate Ecclesiastical Societies, north and south. The southern section of town was later incorporated as the town of Clinton in 1838. The northern society‘s first meeting house (1736) was located on “Stoney Hill, just north of the bridge across Bear Swamp,” (near the intersection of the present Routes 80 and 81). This initial building was replaced by a new one in 1743. The third and current house of worship of the Congregational Church in Killingworth, at 273 Route 81, was built between 1817 and 1820. The bell was installed in 1870 and the organ in 1875. The addition of the Parish Hall was begun in 1959 and was dedicated in 1961, the same year the church voted to join the United Church of Christ.

Benjamin Clark House (1800)

The Federal-style house at 603 Orange Center Road in Orange, which dates to around 1800, was the first house to be built on Orange Center Green. Records indicate that the property was owned by Benjamin Clark in 1810 and it has remained in the Clark family ever since. The Clark farm, known as Maple View Farm, was established in the 1790s. A working dairy and produce farm, it now provides horse-related activities for the public.

Horace Parmelee House (1847)

The Horace Parmelee House in Killingworth was built in 1847 and was the home of Horace L. Parmelee (1819-1898) and his wife Eunice (1822-1905). After her husband’s death, Eunice sold the farm to William Kathotka of New York in 1904, who then sold it to the Pavelka family in 1906. From 1948 to 1956, the property was owned by Edward and Martha McGrath, who ran it as a summer resort known as “Farm in the Dell.” It was then owned by the Bosco family and was known as Bosco’s Turkey Farm. The Parmelee Farm was purchased by the town of Killingworth in 2000 and it is operated as community open space, including trails and the Killingworth Community Gardens. The Municipal Land Use and Parmelee Farm Steering committees are exploring uses for the late Federal-style house and seeking grants for its restoration. The Killingworth Historical Scociety is interested in using the house to store and exhibit its collections.

Edmund J. Thompson, Jr. House (1800)

Built around 1800, the Edmund J. Thompson, Jr. House is at 99 South Main Street in East Granby. The house has a finely-detailed Palladian window over the entrance and a later colonnaded Greek Revival portico on the south side, added around 1840. During the Revolutionary War, Edmund (or Edward) J. Thompson, Jr. served in the Connecticut Continental Line from 1779 to 1780. He later left East Granby and settled in Lowville, New York.

Oliver Wolcott Library (1799)

The building at 160 South Street in Litchfield was built in 1799 as a house by Elijah Wadsworth. In 1814, it was purchased by Oliver Wolcott, Jr. The house was just across the street from the former home of his father, Oliver Wolcott, Sr., later occupied by his brother. Oliver, Sr. was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and Governor of Connecticut from 1796 to 1797. Oliver, Jr., who attended Yale and Tapping Reeve’s Litchfield Law School, served as Secretary of the Treasury under Washington and Adams, from 1795 to 1800, and as Governor of Connecticut, from 1817 to 1827. Wolcott added the two-story south wing to the Wadsworth House a few years after purchasing it. The house was given to the Litchfield Historical Society in 1963. The Society and the town library at that time shared the Noyes Memorial Building on the Green. The Society gave the Wolcott House to the library as its new home, in return for retaining the Noyes Building. The library hired Eliot Noyes and Associates of New Canaan to design a new modern wing at the rear of the Wolcott House, which began construction in 1965. The following year, the library moved into its new home and took the name Oliver Wolcott Library in honor of both Oliver Wolcott, Sr. and Oliver Wolcott, Jr.

John Rossetter III House (1799)

At 15 Liberty Street in Clinton is a Federal/Greek Revival house. The National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form for the Clinton Village Historic District estimates its date as c.1830. The historic marker, currently on the house, bears the date 1799 and describes it as the homestead of John Rossetter 3rd and Elizabeth Buell. Interestingly, just down the street, at 3 Liberty Street, is the 1734 home of John Rossetter, which passed into the Buell family around 1800.