Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Greek Revival

Milo Burr House (1827)

The house at 41 Burr Mountain Road in Torrington has a sign indicating it was built by Milo Burr in 1827. Milo Burr (1797-1872), is described in the The Torrington Register Souvenir Edition: An Illustrated and Descriptive Exposition of Torrington, Connecticut (1897):

Milo Burr, a native of Torrington and an energetic, hardworking and enterprising man, did a great deal at the time of the building of the Naugatuck Railroad. He also purchased timber lands where Burrville now stands, engaged in the lumber business, cutting pine timber in the vicinity and reducing it to lumber, used two or three sawmills in this business and owned several hundred acres of land. He erected many buildings and built a dam, making a reservoir on the mountain west of Burrville at an elevation of 250 to 300 feet above the residence, and also had large farming interests.

John M. Burr resides in the house his father erected in 1827, and maintains the old family homestead. He has erected and operates a grist mill, and has continued to make improvements in harmony with his father’s spirit and work.

The house, grounds, stables and everything about the place indicate thrift and good keeping, and the recent donation by Mr. Burr of a site for the power and car house of the electric railway, practically making the place a center, shows the public spirit of the man and must lead to an appreciation of property in the vicinity as well as add new life to the place.

Elisha Strong House (1780)

The house at 10 (listed as 20 on the town Assessors page) North Meadow Road in Windsor was built c. 1780 on land once occupied by Elder John Strong, one of the early settlers of the town. The house was erected by Elisha Strong (1748-1826). According to Vol. I of The History of the Descendants of Elder John Strong, of Northampton, Mass. (1871), by Benjamin W. Dwight,

In the Revolutionary war he was appointed agent for his native town to clothe the Connecticut troops in the Continental army, and authorized to borrow on the credit of the town three thousand pounds lawful money. On June 13, 1823, the first board of trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Windsor was organized at his house, and he was chosen one of its trustees. He d[ied] at Windsor, Feb. 28,1826, aged 78

Deacon Jasper Morgan, Sr. purchased the house in 1829 and altered it to its current Greek Revival appearance. The above picture was taken about a decade ago.

Capt. Pardon T. Brown House (1840)

The nomination for the Noank Historic District in Groton gives two names for the house at 45 Front Street: Capt. Pardon T. Brown and Luther Rathbun. The latter may be Captain Luther Morgan Rathbun (1805-1889), a fisherman. The sign on the house, built c. 1840, only gives the name Captain Pardon Brown, who was also a fisherman. A petition from 1845 concerning the Town of Groton’s purchase of an old church on Fort Hill for use as a town house was signed by Pardon T. Brown and other prominent men of Mystic and Noank. He was also one of the complainants in a claim for damages from the Court of Commissioners of Alabama Claims relating to an incident from the Civil War: the fishing smack L.A. Macomber was lying at anchor off Nantucket shoals on June 17, 1863 when she was captured and burned by the Confederate Bark Tacony.

726 Burnside Avenue, East Hartford (1850)

Built circa 1850, the house at 726 Burnside Avenue in East Hartford was used by the Burnside Methodist Church (now New Covenant Methodist Church) across the street as a parsonage from the 1910s until 1944, when it was sold to private owners. The house is a variation on the typical Greek Revival form, with the front entrance being located on the ell, rather than on the main block.

Lewis Miller House (1840)

On the western edge of the village of Rockfall in Middlefield is a Greek Revival house at 51 Derby Road at the corner of Main Street. The house was erected c. 1840 by Lewis Miller, who had acquired the land in 1836 from Jane W. Baldwin. Lewis was the son of Giles Miller and the grandson of Deacon Giles Miller, an early settler of the area. The house remained in the Miller family until 1893.

John Palmer House (1859)

The house at 18 Church Street in the village of Noank in Groton was built in 1859. It is known as the John Palmer House. This was possibly the John Palmer whose father, John Palmer (1787-1859), started the shipbuilding business in Noank that his sons, John and Robert, would develop into the highly successful Noank Shipyard, known as the Palmer Yard.

Orlando Gladwin House (1830)

The house 363 Saybrook Road in the Higganum section of Haddam was built in the early 1830s by Orlando Gladwin (1805-1894), shortly after his marriage to Tamzin S. Church in 1829. A trunk made by Tamzin’s father with the initials T.S.C. was recently donated to the Haddam Historical Society. Gladwin was a carpenter who may have built the house himself and later added the many eclectic architectural details it displays today. The house was erected on land owned by his father, James Gladwin. After his father died in 1855, Orlando Gladwin mortgaged the house to his brother, Erasmus, a shipbuilder.