The Anderson House (1702)

The Anderson House, at 1380 Enfield Street in Enfield, was built in 1702 by original settlers of the town. Later in the eighteenth century, the house was owned by Ephraim Pease, grandson of Deacon Robert Pease, one of the two founders of Enfield, who came from Salem, Massachusetts. Ephraim Pease was a merchant, slave owner and representative in the General Assembly. It’s possible that George Washington once slept in the house, which also held Hessian prisoners during the Revolutionary War. The house was later in a dilapidated condition but was eventually restored.

The Hartung-Trumbull House (1835)

Possibly built by Edwin Fitch, the Hartung-Trumbull House in Mansfield Center dates to around 1835. John Hartung, wagon-maker and town postmaster, owned the property until 1845. From 1859 to 1894, it was the home of Eunice M. Swift Trumbull, wife of William Trumbull. The Catalog of the Officers and Students of Talladega College, published in 1905, lists “The Eunice M. Swift Trumbull Scholarship of $500, established in 1895, by devise of Mrs. Trumbull, of Mansfield, Conn.” Talladega College, in Talladega, Alabama, is that state’s oldest historically black private liberal arts college, founded in 1867.

The Sturges Cottage (1840)

This Halloween, we look at one of the greatest and best documented examples of domestic Gothic Revival architecture in America. Like Roseland Cottage in Woodstock, Sturges Cottage, built on Mill Plain Green in Fairfield in 1840-1841, is an early architect-designed house reflecting the principles of Andrew Jackson Downing in his work on country houses. The Sturges Cottage is the first documented commission for Joseph Collins Wells, an English immigrant who became a New York-based architect. He would go on to design Roseland Cottage in 1846. The Sturges Cottage was built as a summer residence for the New York merchant Jonathan Sturges and his wife, Mary Pemberton Cady Sturges. Sturges was a grandson of Jonathan Sturges, member of the Continental Congress. He was a philanthropist and patron of the arts who started his career working for Luman Reed, a prominent New York merchant and art collector. Sturges was a member of the Sketch Club, a precursor to the National Academy of Design. The Sturges family continues to occupy and maintain the house, to which major additions were made in 1846, 1883 and 1895. (more…)

Dr. Reuben Smith House (1770)

On North Street in Litchfield is a house built in 1770 for Dr. Reuben Smith and his new wife, Abigail Hubbard. Next to Dr. Smith’s home was his Apothecary Shop, later moved to Litchfield Green. The house is one of three on North Street known to have been constructed by the well-known builder of churches, Giles Kilborn of Bantam. The structure was altered in the nineteenth century, when the original central chimney was removed. It has since been reconstructed. The house has recently been for sale.

Simsbury Meeting House (1970)

Simsbury’s first meeting house was built in 1683 and was used until 1739. A reproduction of that now lost building was constructed in 1970 to serve as the Simsbury Tercentenary Celebration headquarters. It’s design was based on an earlier 1935 reproduction and it contains some windows and the door used on that building. Today, the reproduction Meeting House is a museum building on the grounds of the Simsbury Historical Society.

Beach Memorial Library (1900)

The Beach Memorial Library, on Main Street in Newtown, was built in 1900. It was the gift of Rebecca D. Beach, a descendant of Rev. John Beach, the first minister of Trinity Episcopal Church in Newtown. John Francis Beach, another Beach descendant, laid the building‘s cornerstone. It served as a library until 1932, when the Cyrenius H. Booth Library opened. The former library then became a private residence. The house was later home to John Reed, who served as Newtown‘s Superintendent of Schools for twenty years.