The house at 65 Woodland Street in Bristol was built by house builder Isaac Stewart. It was the home of Frank Curtis, who worked at New Departure Manufaturing Company.
Isaac Stewart House (1885)
Newton Woodford House (1855)
Around 1855, Newton Woodford, a brass founder from New Britain, settled in Kensington in Berlin. He built an Italian Villa type house at 57 Hotchkiss Street, on land he had acquired from the Hart Manufacturing Company. As related in the Boston Post on Wednesday, October 20, 1875: “Newton Woodford, of the Hart Tool Manufacturing Company, of Kensington, Conn., and a prominent citizen of that place, fell dead of heart disease, while transacting business at New Britain, on Saturday.” The Woodford House is now a two-family residence.
Crocker House (1872)
The Crocker House is a five-story luxury hotel built at 180 State Street in New London in 1872. The project was inspired by A. N. Ramsdell, president of the New London Railroad and the New London City Bank. The hotel was named for Henry Scudder Crocker, its first proprietor, who who was also the manager of the elite Pequot House summer resort. The Crocker House‘s Mansard-roofed top floor was later destroyed in a fire. An addition to the building, designed by architect James Sweeney, was erected in 1914. Playwright Eugene O’Neill could often be found in the hotel’s bar. Today the former hotel is the Crocker House Apartments. (more…)
Eli Parmelee House (1860)
The Italianate-style house at 72 Church Street in Guilford was built c. 1860. It has Queen Anne-style porches added later in the nineteenth century. This was the home of Deacon Eli Parmelee (1808-1882) who served in the state legislature and was a deacon of the First Congregational Church from 1852 until his death in 1882.
Gardner Mansion (1843)
The Gothic Revival mansion with Italianate detailing at 36 Gardner Street at Warehouse Point in East Windsor was built in 1843 (or 1847) for Avah Gardner. The Gardener estate later became a Swedish orphanage and working farm. The property was acquired by the state in 1883 when the Connecticut General Assembly decided to create an orphanage/country home in each of its eight counties. The orphanage served children who had run away from home or were truant. Known as Gardner Hall or the Administration Building, the former mansion has two additions: a north wing built c. 1890 and a section on the east side added in 1921. The building originally had a tower which has since been removed. The state’s other county orphanages closed in 1955 except for the facility at Warehouse Point, which was renamed the State Receiving Home. It was later renamed the Connecticut Children’s Place, serving as a residential and educational center for abused and neglected children. Since 2013 has been the Albert J. Solnit Children’s Center- North Campus, a psychiatric treatment facility for juvenile males.
Rev. Luke Daly Houses (1873)
Rev. Luke Daly, a Catholic priest, erected two Italianate houses in Kensington at 80 and 88 Main Street about 1873 on land he bought from George D. Boyer. When Daly died he left the houses to the Catholic Church, which owned them for twenty-five years.
John A. Woodward House (1867)
John A. Woodward, a carpenter and Civil War veteran, erected the house at 235 Main Street in Watertown in 1867 (it has since been much expanded). Interesting evidence survives of a method employed to sell the house in 1880 in the form of a $1.00 share in the house, the reverse side of which reads:
Share in the beautiful residence property and lot occupied by J. A. Woodward, situated in the center of the charming village of Watertown, Conn., valued at sixty-five hundred [$6500] dollars, and also entitles the bearer to admission to a grand entertainment to be given at the warren house in that town, on Wednesday Ev., Oct. 27, 1880, at which time the residence will be delivered to the shareholders to be disposed of as they may direct
Update: Further information about the house can be found in the brochure for the 2011 Watertown House Tour. According to this document, the first people to live in the house were Eben and Margaret Atwood. Their daughter Amelia married Howard Miner Hickcox who started the Hickcox Funeral Home in 1884. It remained in the Hickcox family until it was sold to attorney Franklin Pilicy, whose 1980s addition doubled the size of the house.
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