Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Greek Revival

Moses Rowe House (1767)

The Moses Rowe House is located at 78 South Main Street in Suffield. It is a colonial house, built in 1767, that was later altered in the Greek Revival style, when the roof was also raised.

The house at 711 Main Street in Plymouth Center was built in 1765-1766 and was owned by Major David Smith, who served with George Washington at Valley Forge. Washington stayed at this house in September 1780 on his way to meet the Comte de Rochambeau in Hartford. The house was later (c. 1850) operated as an inn by A.B. Curtiss and, after his death, by his widow. It was called it the Quiet House because alcohol was not served. As related in the History of the town of Plymouth, Connecticut (1895):

A. B. Curtiss was born in the town of Plymouth in 1819, and died at the age of sixty-seven. While a boy he entered the store of Edwin Talmadge as clerk, and his aptness for business and pleasant manners so commended him to his employer that when he became of age he was taken into partnership. The firm did a large business for those days, but unfortunate endorsements caused their downfall. Mr. Curtiss started in business again in the Stephen Mitchell store, but soon after bought the property where he died, remodeled the house, and opened a hotel. Except for a couple of years, when he kept the Brown hotel in Waterbury, he had for forty years welcomed strangers to his house and catered to their wants. He was well fitted for a landlord by his care to have everything pleasant, his genial hearty manners and business like ways. He was a benevolent, public spirited man. always ready to do his full share in common enterprises. His later years were full of suffering, yet to the last he had a bright and cheery word for each friend and acquaintance. Mrs. A. B. Curtiss still keeps the doors of the Quiet house open to strangers and travelers, some of whom often travel out of their way to indulge in the homelike accommodations that are to be had there.

Daniel Buck House and Store (1780)

On the property that is now 778 Farmington Avenue in Farmington, Elijah Lewis is said to have had a store going back to 1780. In 1841, the property (which was then part of the Lewis Place, later the Elm Tree Inn) was sold to wheelwright Daniel Buck by Eunice J. Woodruff, daughter of Noadiah Woodruff (son of Judah Woodruff). Buck used it as his home and workshop/store. It has had many owners over the years, including Alfred A. Pope, who purchased it in 1900. By that time it was being used as a plumbing shop and Pope purchased it for Arthur Joseph Parker, a plumber whom he had hired to install the plumbing and heating in his new house, Hill-Stead.

Amos Gridley Store (1846)

In 1846, Amos Gridley built a brick store (22 Deforest Street) next to the Congregational Church in Watertown. Gridley also built his Italianate house next door. He was accused of dubious business practices and eventually went bankrupt. Unusually for a store, the building has a colonnaded Greek portico. It was later used as a town hall and firehouse and is home to the Watertown Historical Society.

Augustus C. Shelton House (1825)

Based in Plymouth, Shelton & Tuttle Company was a successful manufacturer of buggies and other horse-drawn vehicles in the nineteenth century. The company’s founder, Augustus C. Shelton, built an elaborate Greek Revival house at 663 Main Street circa 1850 (or was the house built earlier, in 1825, and Shelton moved in later?). Shelton had served an apprenticeship as a wheelwright in New Haven before returning to his hometown of Plymouth in 1837. He set up his carriage factory, which was run by his partner, Byron Tuttle, after his death in 1880.

Olmstead-Allen House (1848)

At 333 Hazard Avenue in Hazardville, Enfield, is the Olmstead-Allen House. It is a Greek Revival house, built in 1848 for George Olmstead (or was it John Olmstead?), who ran the tin works that provided canisters for the Hazard Powder Company.

Rev. Francis L. Robbins House (1830)

The Greek Revival house at 1280 Enfield Street in Enfield was built in 1830 for Rev. Francis LeBaron Robbins. Rev. Robbins (b. 1787) was a Congregationalist missionary who became pastor of Enfield’s Congregational Church in 1816. He served as pastor for 34 years, until his death in 1850. The house continued in use as a parsonage until the mid-twentieth century.