847 North Main Street, West Hartford (1777)

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The 1777 house at 847 North Main Street in West Hartford is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is also on a touring guide of the Historic Sites of West Hartford. No known family name appears to be associated with this home.
Also, seven new buildings have been posted on Historic Buildings of Massachusetts! These are Trinity Church and New Old South Church in Boston; the Sheldon-Hawks House and Wells-Thorn House in Deerfield; the Phillips School in Boston; Harvard Hall in Cambridge; and Connecticut’s own state building at the Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield!

Graves-Gilman House (1866)

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The Graves-Gilman House, on Hillhouse Avenue in New Haven, is an Italianate Villa built in 1866. Originally intended for John S. Graves, it was sold before it was completed to Tredwell Ketcham of New York, who gave it to his daughter, Mary Van Winker Ketcham. She was the wife of Daniel Coit Gilman, a Yale professor and librarian, who became the second president of the University of California in 1872 and in 1875 helped establish the Johns Hopkins University as its first president. Gilman also wrote a number of books, including biographies of James Monroe and James Dwight Dana, whose house was also on Hillhouse Avenue. Yale acquired the house in 1921 and it was converted in 1957 to house the Department of Economics.

Barber-Perry House (1843)

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Known locally in Canton as the “Stone House,” the Barber-Perry House, 22 Barbourtown Road, was built in 1843 by two brothers, Volney and Linus Barber. They used stone quarried to the north of the property’s barns. The house was bought by George W. Lamphier in 1866 and by Thomas M. Perry in 1944. Perry was a physicist working on gears for naval ordinance during the war. He worked in a shop on his property and soon started the T.M. Perry Company, eventually building a new facility, across the street from the house, in 1955. The Perry property is still a dairy farm, known as Scott Perry or Perrys Dairy, and the house is owned by the Perry Brothers Partnership.

John Pierpont House (1767)

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The John Pierpont House, on Elm Street in New Haven, was built in 1767 and is located between the Jonathan Mix and Ralph Ingersoll Houses. The house was used by British soldiers as a headquarters and hospital during the Revolutionary War, when they raided New Haven in 1779. It remained in the Pierpont family until 1900, when it was purchased by Rev. Anson Phelps Stokes, Secretary of Yale University, who added two symmetrical rear wings. The house was acquired by Yale in 1921 and “restored” by architect J. Frederick Kelly in 1929. Other alterations have been made over the years, some being removed by Kelly, who sought to recreate a Colonial appearance. Yale has used the house as the Faculty Club, Office of Undergraduate Admissions, and most recently as the University’s Visitor Center. The building’s interior and exterior have been extensively renovated since it became the Visitor Center in 1995.

Ocean Bank (1851)

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The Ocean Bank was incorporated in Stonington Borough in 1851 with a capital of one hundred thousand dollars. The bank building was constructed the same year on the Town Square (known as Cannon Square since the 1870s). Antique Ocean Bank banknote proof sheets from the 1850-60s survive today. Ocean Bank later became the First National Bank of Stonington. In 1942, the building was purchased by the Stonington Historical Society, with the intention of making it the Society’s headquarters and a museum. The circumstances of the war prevented this plan from being carried out and it was instead leased to the American Red Cross during the war. The building, still owned by the society, has since continued to house a bank (currently a Bank of America).