Silas W. Robbins House (1873)

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Silas Webster Robbins, a partner in the seed business, Johnson, Robbins and Co., built an impressive Second Empire style mansion on Broad Street Green in Wethersfield in 1873. Damaged by fire in 1996, the home was purchased in 2001 by new owners, who have restored it. The Silas W. Robbins House will open as a bed-and-breakfast on November 1, and a number of gala events are planned for this month, including daily house tours, Oct. 6-Oct. 14, to benefit the Keane Foundation.

John Millard House (1790)

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In 1858, John Millard bought a brick Federal-style house on South Main Street in West Hartford. The date of the house’s construction is not known, but land records indicate a sale of this land in 1790 with a house and barn in existence. Part of the property was purchased in 1821 by James Hurlbut. John Millard, like his relative Samuel Millard, had a farm along South Main Street. Millard and then his daughter lived in the house until 1921, when it was bought by the current owner’s grandparents.

Rev. William Thompson House (1847)

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Built in 1847, on Main Street in East Windsor Hill, by the Theological Institute of Connecticut as a residence for its Chair of Biblical Literature, Rev. William Thompson. The Institute sold the home to Rev. Thompson when it moved to Hartford in 1865 (it is now known as the Hartford Theological Seminary). Rev. Thompson came from Goshen and, according to Williston Walker’s A History of the Congregational Churches in the United States (1894), his “connection with the seminary lasted till his death, in 1889, and to his wisdom, patience, self-denial, and teaching skill, whatever success the institution has had is chiefly due.”