Designed by master builder Captain James Francis, the 1800 Richard Bunce House, at the corner of Main and Garden Streets in Wehersfield, displays some of the same Federal features, like semi-circular windows, as in Francis’ earlier Robert Robbins House. The Bunce House was also a tavern, the entrance being on the west, or Main Street side.
Originally built as a center-chimney house in 1846 for Dr. Aretus Rising on South Main Street in Suffield. In 1854, the house was bought by John Welles Loomis, a successful tobacco entrepreneur, who converted it to a center hallway, two chimney house with Greek Revival features. Loomis later built an Italianate house nearby for his son, George W. Loomis.
Overlooking the Cove on Hartford Avenue in Wethersfield, the 1774 Solomon Welles House, built for a descendant of the colonial governor Thomas Welles, is owned by the town and is available to be rented for events.
The Henry Stillman House is an 1872 Gothic Revival style home on Main Street in Wethersfield.
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Built in 1787 for Henry Deming on Main Street in Wethersfield and later owned by the Standish family, the Deming-Standish House was given to the town of Wethersfield in 1928. It is very similar to the 1783 brick house built for Samuel Woodhouse, Jr., on nearby River Road. In 1800, James Francis and his cousin, Simeon, were contracted to do the woodworking of the front rooms and the windows, the facade thus being updated in the Federal style. Within a few years, the neighboring Hurlbut and Shepard Houses would be constructed in the Federal style. The house was leased to the Wethersfield Historical Society in 1983 and over the years has been rented to different proprietors as a restaurant, first as The Standish House, and more recently as The Village Tavern. It is currently between tenants.
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Built in 1810 on Main Street in Middletown for the merchant Samuel Mather, the Federal-style General Mansfield House was later home to Mather’s daughter Louisa and her husband, General Joseph K. F. Mansfield. At the start of the Civil War, Mansfield was in charge of the defense of Washington, D.C. On September 17, 1862, he was killed at the Battle of Antietam (or Sharpsburg) in Maryland, haven just taken command two days before of the XII Corps of the Army of the Potomac. A monument and a mortuary cannon are dedicated to him on the battlefield of Antietam. There is also a monument in Middletown’s Indian Hill Cemetery, where he is buried. His house was later occupied by his descendants. Slated for demolition in the 1950s, it was saved by the Middlesex County Historical Society and now serves as the Society’s headquarters and museum.
A brick gambrel-roofed house, on River Road in Wethersfield, was constructed for Samuel Woodhouse, Jr. in 1783. He was a sailor and shipbuilder and the son of Samuel Woodhouse, Sr. and Thankful Blinn, the granddaughter of the famous cabinetmaker Peter Blinn. Woodhouse also served in the Revolutionary War.
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