Knight-Whaples-Grant Cottage (1871)

Grant Cottage

The summer cottage at 25 Pettipaug Avenue in the Borough of Fenwick in Old Saybrook was built circa 1871 on land sold that year to Mrs. Cyrus Knight. Her husband, Rev. Cyrus Frederick Wright was rector of the Church of the Incarnation (later renamed St. James’ Episcopal Church) in Hartford from 1870 to 1877. He resigned after an incident in which church funds were stolen by the parish treasurer. Rev. Knight then served as rector of St. James Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, from 1877 to 1889, but continued to summer in Fenwick. When he became Bishop of Milwaukee in 1889, he and his wife could no longer make the long trip to Fenwick and therefore rented the cottage for the summer. Rev. Knight died in 1891 and his wife, Elizabeth P. Pickering Knight, in 1912. The cottage was then owned for a time by Heywood Whaples. It was purchased in 1952 by Ellsworth Grant (1917-2013) and his wife, Marion Hepburn Grant (1918-1986), the sister of Katharine Hepburn. The cottage has later rear additions. You can read more about the cottage in Marion Hepburn Grant’s The Fenwick Story (Connecticut Historical Society, 1974), pages 128-131.

Matthews-Stow House (1753)

Matthews-Stow House

The house at 392 Jackson Hill Road in Middlefield was built sometime between January 1753, when John and Anna Wetmore Matthews purchased the land, and January 1755, when they sold it to Amos Miller. After Miller‘s death in 1777, the house had several owners. It was eventually purchased by Obed Stow (1767-1839), a shoemaker, in 1794. The house’s original central chimney has been replaced and the front portico was added later.

Henry W. Skinner House (1860)

Henry Skinner House

The Skinner family were wood turners in Middlefield in the nineteenth century. The house at 445 Main Street in Middlefield was built by Henry W. Skinner not far from his father Albert‘s turning shop, which was started in 1853 along the Beseck River. Henry’s grandfather, Horace, had also been a turner. Henry W. Skinner took over the family business after his father’s death in 1868. The year before, he had given his house to his mother Almira, who lived there until her death in 1882.

Stephen P. Polley House (1870)

350 Main St., Cromwell

The house at 350 Main Street in Cromwell was built around 1870 on land purchased by Stephen P. Polley in 1869. Born in Chatham (Portland), Polley and his brother, Hiram Nelson Polley, moved to Wilmington, North Carolina, along with Levi Austin Hart of Southington and established Hart & Polley, a machine shop and metals manufacturing company. Stephen P. Polley later returned to Connecticut and founded the Cromwell Dime Savings Bank in 1871. He served as Cromwell’s town clerk from 1872 to 1878 and again from 1879 to 1881. After he died in 1887, his widow Catherine (from North Carolina) lived in the house until her death in 1891.

Deacon Shubal Smith House (1840)

176 South Main St., Colchester

Shubal Smith, an attorney, purchased property on Towne Street (now now 176 South Main Street) in Colchester in 1839 and around that time constructed a Greek Revival house. By 1854 the house was owned jointly by Smith and Enoch Brown and passed to Deacon Smith’s son George Smith in 1868. The house was sold to Norman Palmer in 1879. His heirs, Isabelle A. Worthington, Flora Brown and Etta Miner, sold the house to John Condren in 1912. The house’s front porch was added sometime after 1903.