The Julius Deming House (1793)

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Julius Deming was a prominent merchant whose house is on North Street in Litchfield. Erected from 1790 to 1793, the Deming house was designed and built by the important builder William Sprats, whose other work includes the house in Farmington called Oldgate, built around the same time as the Deming House. In the later nineteenth century, the house was used by Deming’s daughter Lucretia Deming as a summer home. She planted linden trees in front of the house, which became known as “The Lindens.” The house remained in the Deming family until 1910. There have been many Colonial Revival-style alterations made over the years, including the addition of a mansard roof with flared eaves in 1936. The house is still considered one of Connecticut’s best examples of the Federal style.

Savage-Butler Homestead (1806)

Savage-Butler Homestead

The Savage and Butler Homestead, a Federal-style house on Main Street in Cromwell, was built in 1806 by a sea captain named Absalom Savage. After he died at sea of yellow fever in 1821, his widow, Sally Wilcox Savage lived in the house until her death in 1834, when it was inherited by their son, Ralph Bulkely Savage. His daughter, Carrie Augusta Savage married George Sylvester Butler, and the house has remained in the Butler family to the present. There is a pdf file about the house celebrating its 200th anniversary. (more…)

First Congregational Church of Norwich (1801)

First Congregational Church of Norwich

Norwich’s First Congregational Church, located on East Town Street, next to Norwichtown Green, is the fifth in a succession of early meeting houses. The first was built on the southeast corner of the Green in 1660, in Norwichtown, the earliest part of Norwich to be settled. During the troubled period of King Philip’s War, it was replaced by a second structure, constructed in 1673 on the nearby cliff area, known as the Meeting House Rocks. There it could also serve as a lookout post in case of Indian raids. After being replaced by a third building later on, the fourth building was built in 1752 back on the plain below. After that church burned, it was replaced, on the same site, by the current Federal-style structure in 1801. When construction began that year, the cornerstone was laid by Ebenezer Huntington. There was extensive remodeling in 1845. (more…)

Burnham-Dewitt House (1789)

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Built on Broadway in Norwich at the same time (1789) as the neighboring Perkins House, the Burnham-Dewitt house has a very similar appearance. It was built for the nephew of Hezekiah Perkins, Zebulon Perkins Burnham, who was also a sea captain. Burnham was lost at sea in 1810 and the house was later owned by the sea captain Jacob Dewitt. In 1812, Lydia Huntley (later Mrs. Sigourney) and Nancy Maria Hyde used the house as a girl’s school.

Hezekiah Perkins House (1789)

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The Federal-style house built for the sea captain Hezekiah Perkins is located on Broadway in Norwich. It is across from Little Plain Green, a triangular-shaped park which was donated to the town by Perkins and his neighbor, Deacon Jabez Huntington. Perkins was cashier at the Norwich Bank and, with his nephews, was also involved in the founding of the Chelsea Grammar School in 1806, which operated for about forty years.

Caroline Nicoll House (1828)

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Abraham Bishop was a New Haven property owner and Jeffersonian political radical who owned the block on Elm Street where the John Cook and Timothy Bishop houses were built in the early nineteenth century. Somewhere between 1828 and 1838, he had a house built for his daughter, Caroline Nicoll, on Elm Street, next to the Cook house and across from the Bishop House.

Today’s post concludes New Haven Month, but also marks an important anniversary: Historic Buildings of Connecticut began one year ago today with the Joseph Webb House in Wethersfield! A post has since appeared for each day, a feat I had not entirely planned on when I began this project! That makes 365 buildings preceding today’s (taking into account an extra one for a leap year, but subtracting the humorous April 1 post). Recently, the blog has moved to a new domain and won an award from the Hartford Preservation Alliance! Let’s see what interesting buildings appear here in the site’s second year!