Buckland & Barton Store and Post Office (1871/1876)

The connected commercial structures at 73 Main Street in East Hampton, known as the Buckland Block, were begun in the 1870s and added to over the years. Leonard Willey, a local merchant, constructed the south store section in 1871 and mortgaged it to finance construction of the north section: a hall erected in 1876. The building was soon acquired by George Buckland and housed Buckland and Barton’s dry goods store, with the south building being used as a post office. Attached at the rear of the post office is an elevator tower, which gave easy access to the P.O. for D. A. Williams, whose patent medicine business was located in the rear annex. The hall was used for town meetings and once was the site of a murder trial. So many spectators attended that the floor began to give way and the trial had to be relocated.

Abraham Brainerd House (1861)

As related in The Genealogy of the Brainerd Family in the United States, with Numerous Sketches of Individuals (1857), by David Dudley Field:

Abraham Brainerd [of Higganum] married Almira M. Clark, of Southwick, Massachusetts, June 5, 1840, and has two children:

  • Francis Gertrude Brainerd, born Aug. 15, 1841.
  • William ” ” July 29, 1849.

    They lived on the paternal homestead a few years, and then moved to Madison. They keep a house of entertainment on the shore of the Sound, near the East Wharf, where they furnish sea food for those who call upon them, or board with them. Among the latter are numbers, especially in the warm season of the year, seeking health from sea air and sea food.

    • The family returned to Higganum (in Haddam) where Abraham Brainerd built the vernacular Italianate house at 34 Maple Avenue on land he had acquired from Orrin Freeman in 1861. As related in The Genealogy of the Brainerd-Brainard Family in America, Vol. II (1908), by Lucy Abigail Brainard:

    He was commissioner on ferries from 1869 to ’74, inclusive. He was grand juror in 1862; justice of the peace from 1846 to ’51, inclusive; selectman in 1847; notary public and postmaster at Higganum for three years, and commissioner of the Superior Court from 1869 to ’75, inclusive. He was a representative from Haddam in 1846, and nominated delegate to the Whig State Convention in 1848. He lived in the Brainerd district, Higganum, Conn. Mr. Abraham Brainerd d. Aug. 7, 1884, ae. 68 yrs. Mrs. Almira M. (Clark) Brainerd d. Aug. 5, 1890.

    Dr. M. L. Fisk House (1850)

    Dr. M. L. Fisk House

    The Italianate house at 108 Main Street in Warehouse Point, East Windsor was built c. 1850. It soon became the home of Dr. Marcus Lyon Fisk, who is described in Vol. II of Henry R. Stiles History and Genealogies of Ancient Windsor (1892):

    Marcus was dependent for educational advantages upon the public schools, the village academy, and private tutors, all of which he improved to the utmost degree. Likewise, as a traditional New Englander, he taught school for several terms at different places in Conn., R. I., and Mass. Deciding upon the medical profession, he made for it a very thorough preparation. After enjoying the preceptorship of Dr. Alden Skinner of Vernon, Conn., Dr, Robert Grosvenor of Killingly, Conn., and Dr. Wm. Grosvenor of Providence, R. I., he completed his course of study at the Berkshire Medical College, Pittsfield, Mass., then an institution of much celebrity. He then went to Philadelphia, and became a private pupil of the distinguished Dr. Geo. McClellan, founder of both the Jefferson and the Pennsylvania Medical Colleges. Entering the latter, in which Dr. McC. was then a Professor, he was grad. with the degree of M.D., 4 Mch., 1842.

    He soon after established himself in East Windsor, Conn., at Broad Brook, where he remained until the autumn of 1864, when, on the death of Dr. Joseph Olmsted of Warehouse Point (E. W.) and at the solicitation of the people of that part of the town, he rem. thither, spending there the remainder of his life, and dying there 2 April, 1883.

    Among physicians Dr. F. was widely known and honored as a Fellow of the Conn. Med. Society, and as one of its oldest members. An experience of over forty years gained him the reputation which carried his practice also into six or seven of the towns adjoining his own. His splendid skill and talents were always at the, service of every one who needed them. He was quick and accurate in diagnosis, sanguine, confident, hope-inspiring to his patients; never at a loss for an expedient; always present-minded and full of resources. To the last, even with Death’s hand upon him, he toiled to relieve human suffering.

    Eli Phelps House (1860)

    Eli Phelps House

    Eli Phelps was a prosperous tobacco farmer in Windsor. Around 1860 he built the impressive Italianate house that stands at 18 Marshall Phelps Road in Poquonock. As related in the Commemorative Biographical Record of Hartford County (1901):

    Hon. Eli Phelps was born at Poquonock, Sept, 1, 1807, and had only such educational advantages as the local schools of that day provided. He was but a young man when his father died, and as the only son the care of the estate fell to him before he had a chance to acquire business experience, yet he managed affairs with conspicuous ability and became one of the most successful farmers of the town, obtaining good results under all circumstances. For some years after his marriage he resided at his father’s old home, later locating at the farm now occupied by our subject. While he left a handsome estate to his children, he was never grasping or unduly economical, and many worthy enterprises were helped forward by his liberality. He was a man of fine physique, six feet tall, weighing 200 pounds, and his mental ability was above the average, his reading and observation enabling him to gain a wide range of practical knowledge. He took an active interest in religious work, serving as treasurer of the Ecclesiastical Society of his town for a long time, and politically he was prominent as a member of the local Democratic organization. At various times he held offices in his town, and for several years he was a member of the General Assembly. He died Sept. 1, 1879, and his remains now rest in the cemetery at Poquonock.