Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Italianate

Downey House (1842)

The early Italianate Downey House, on the corner of Court Street and High Street in Middletown, represents the transition from the Greek Revival to the Italian villa style. It was built in 1841-1842 for Elihu W. N. Starr, a member of a well known family of sword and gun manufacturers, but was sold to the son of Samuel Russell in 1853. It was later used (1889-1911) as the Misses Patten’s School for girls and was purchased by Wesleyan University in 1922. It was named Downey House in honor of Dr. David G. Downey, a president of the University’s board of trustees.

The Coite-Hubbard House (1856)

The building which now serves as Wesleyan’s President’s House was originally built in 1856 for Gabriel Coite, who became a state senator in 1860 and moved to Hartford in 1862, when he became the State Treasurer. In 1863, his Italianate house on High Street in Middletown was sold to Mrs. Jane Miles Hubbard, the widow of Samuel Hubbard, who had been a US Postmaster General. Wesleyan University acquired the Coite-Hubbard House from her heirs in 1904 to become the new President’s House, replacing the first building used for that purpose.

Edward Savage House (1837)

The Greek Revival-style home of Edward Savage, on Main Street in Cromwell, was built in 1837. Savage had inherited half of his father’s farm and then bought the other half from his brother. He was also involved with manufacturing, founding the Savage Revolving Firearms Co. in 1858. The house was later significantly altered, with the addition of the cupola, porches and a new wing on the north side. Some of these changes were probably in response to the popularity of the Italianate style on Cromwell’s Main Street in the 1850s and 1860s.

Joseph W. Waters House (1865)

Joseph W. Waters was a New York-born industrialist who came to Cromwell and worked for the J & E Stevens Company. He married John Stevens‘ daughter Sarah and around 1865 he had an Italianate-style house built on Main Street in Cromwell. After Waters was killed in an accident, his widow married George Gillum of Portland. She lived in the residence until her death in 1896.

Stevens-Frisbie House (1854)

The Stevens-Frisbie House is an Italianate-style home built in 1853-1854 at the intersection of Main Street and New Lane in Cromwell. It was built by John Stevens, who came to Cromwell in the 1830s and, with his brother Elisha, founded the J & E Stevens Company, which manufactured hardware and toys, including mechanical banks. After John Stevens’s death, his widow sold the house to Russel Frisbie in 1892. Frisbie was superintendent of J & E Stevens and had lived in a neighboring house on Main Street since 1873. The house was passed down in the Frisbie family, until it was bequeathed, with all of its Victorian-era furnishings, to the Cromwell Historical Society in 1968. It now serves as the Society’s headquarters and is open to the public for tours as a historic house museum. The most significant alteration to the house has been the turn-of-the-century addition of a Colonial Revival-style front porch. (more…)

Ahern Funeral Home (1855)

The house at 180 Farmington Avenue in Hartford which now serves as the Ahern Funeral Home, was built around 1855. It represents the transition from the Greek Revival style (with its cubical shape and three bay front) to the Italianate style (with its overhanging roof and elaborately detailed portico). The one story addition was added in the later nineteenth century. The Ahern Funeral Home, Inc. was founded in 1886 and acquired the house in 1934.

Lafayette S. Foster House (1850)

Lafayette Sabin Foster was a U.S. senator and judge on the Connecticut Supreme Court. His Italianate-style house, built in the 1850s on Broadway in Norwich, was acquired in 1953 by the Norwich Free Academy. It housed the Norton-Peck Library until the library collection was later moved to another building. The Lafayette Foster House is now part of the NFA’s Latham Science and Information Center, which was connected to it.