Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Folk Victorian

Frank Sanford House (1884)

For Halloween, we present a classic Victorian Stick Style house, the 1884 Frank Sanford House, on Lovely Street in Unionville. The Stick Style is viewed as a transitional style between the earlier Gothic and Italianate and the later Queen Anne styles. Some see the Stick style as an independent style, others as a part of the broader category of Queen Anne. Sanford, who owned a lumber and hardware business, married Marion Hawley and soon joined his brother-in-law, C. R. Hawley in founding the Sanford and Hawley lumber and building materials company, which is still in operation today.

Everett Hurlburt House (1902)

The Everett Hurlbut House, on Main Street in Glastonbury, was built in 1902 and has a distinctive Queen Anne design. Everett Hurlbut had married into the Williams family and became a manager for the J. B. Williams Soap Company. He was later president of the company and is credited with inventing Aqua Velva.

Joshua Adams House (1891)

The Queen Anne-style house of Joshus Adams, on Church Street in Wethersfield, features wood shingles and a sunburst pattern in the front gable. Generations of the Adams family of Wethersfield were involved in various forms of woodworking: Josha Adams was the great-great grandson of Amasa Adams, who owned a half-interest in the Chester Mill, afterward known as Adams Mill, at Mill Woods (PDF).

187-189 Main Street, Unionville (1885)

The two-family house at 187-189 Main Street in Unionville (in Farmington) was built around 1885 as a rental house by Minerva Upson Frisbie, wife of Samuel Frisbie, a treasurer of the Upson Nut Company (he also had a number of patents for machines). The house is trimmed with decorative features in the Stick style, such as sunbursts.

Rose Cottage (1886)

Zebulon Hancox (1809-1899) was a notable eccentric and recluse in Stonington. The descendant of an old Stonington family, local legend claims that the girl he wanted to marry rejected him due to his poverty, so he devoted himself to making enough money to satisfy her. He did this as a fisherman and pioneering real-estate developer, who saved all he could, even to the extent of making all of his own clothes and wood buttons. Although he died at 91 with a significant sum, he ended up having never married. A number of houses he built, between 1868 and 1897, survive on Hancox Street in Stonington Borough. Adjacent to the water, these were originally unadorned two-story structures following the same basic plan and intended as houses for rental. Over the years, they have been greatly altered. One example is Rose Cottage, constructed in 1886, which has had numerous additions and embellishments.

The Buell-Cook House (1877)

Built on South Street in Litchfield in 1877, when the Gothic Style was still popular, the Buell-Cook House survived the early twentieth-century Colonial Revival transformation of the town, although the home is now painted a Colonial Revival influenced white, rather than its original dark colors. The house was originally a duplex, but in 1982, it was converted for use by a single family.

Burt Thompson House (1896)

The Burt Thompson House, on prospect Street in Willimantic, was built in 1896 and displays aspects of the Queen Anne, Italianate and Stick styles. It is particularly notable for its two-level porch featuring a variety of Eastlake style designs.