Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Vernacular

539 Hopewell Road, Glastonbury (1840)

It is not known who built the house at 539 Hopewell Road in Glastonbury. While in some ways resembling a traditional center-chimney house, it has a less traditional arrangement of windows suggesting a later date. The front roof dormer is a twentieth-century addition. The property was owned in the 1840s and 1850s by Henry Dayton, a farmer who may have been attempting to capitalize on nearby industrial development. The house was later, in fact, owned by a general store that was linked to the textile mills. (more…)

Abiel Canfield House (1784)

Abiel Canfield (1753-1812) served in the Revolutionary War. He married Mary Barlow of Statford in (1754-1840) in 1779. In the back yard of his 1784 house at 83 West Street in Seymour, Canfield had a shop where he manufactured brass and pewter buttons, buckles, and sleigh bells.

Parker and Judson Factory (1865)

At 17 Shipyard Road in Middle Haddam is the former Parker and Judson Factory. Built in 1865, the factory produced hardware, toys and silk ribbons. In 1909 it was converted into a residence. Next to the former factory is the old Parker and Judson stone dam, constructed before 1830.

Derrin House (1810)

The Derrin House is a vernacular farmhouse at 249 West Avon Road in Avon. Its oldest sections may date to c. 1747 (could that be 1767?) and it was added to at least four times over the years. The most recent section of the house is closest to the road and the sign for the house reads c. 1810. It was built by the Derrin (or Derring) family. Little is known about the family other than that they built several houses along the same road in the western part of Avon in the eighteenth century on land they acquired in 1766. The house is located in Horse Guard State Park and is owned by the State of Connecticut Military Department for the First Company Governor’s Horse Guard, which is based across the street. The house is currently being restored by the Avon Historical Society.

Music Vale Seminary Barn (1849)

In the nineteenth century, Salem was home to what is considered to be the first music conservatory (the first degree-granting school of music, or at least music teaching certificate-granting school) in the United States. Founded around 1835 by Orramel Whittlesey, son of the local Methodist minister Rev. John Whittlesey, the school was first called Mr. Whittlesey’s School, later the Salem Normal Academy of Music, and eventually the Music Vale Seminary. Young women from all over the country came to attend the school. After its original rambling classroom building burned down in 1868, it was replaced by an elaborate Italianate structure. The school closed soon after Whittlesey’s death in 1876 and the main building was destroyed by fire in 1897. The school’s large barn, built c. 1849, does survive. It is typical of an “English barn,” a type also called a side-entry or eave entry barn, a “thirty by forty” (based on its dimensions), a “Yankee barn” or a “Connecticut Barn.” The school‘s farm played an important role for the institution, supplying animals and crops. The Bodman family later owned the Music Vale property and donated much of it to the Salem Land Trust. The barn is now part of what is known as Music Vale Farm. (more…)

William Moon House (1850)

Like the neighboring house at 224 Cornwall Avenue, the house at 214 Cornwall Avenue in Cheshire was built in the 1850s by Edward A. Cornwall to rent to rent to one of the many miners from Cornwall, England who were emigrating at the time to Cheshire to work in the barite mines. Barite was discovered in Cheshire around 1840 and mining activity continued until 1878. The house was purchased for $850 by William Moon, a miner from Cornwall, in 1862. He paid $$250 down with a $600 mortgage held by Edward Cornwall. The current owners have expanded the house in recent years. (pdf source)

Richard Brown House (1850)

In the nineteenth century, Cheshire became famous for its barite mines. Barite was discovered in Cheshire around 1840 and mining activity continued until 1878. Many miners from Cornwall in England settled in Cheshire to work in the mines. One such miner was Richard Brown, who rented the house at 224 Cornwall Avenue. It was built in the 1850s as an investment property by Edward A. Cornwall, a prominent citizen of Cheshire. Cornwall sold many other parcels of land from the Cornwall Farm, which went back in his family to the 1790s. Richard Brown later purchased the house with a mortgage held by Cornwall. The house was a twin of the residence next door at 214 Cornwall Avenue, which was also a rental property erected by Cornwall. The house at 224 Cornwall has a later Victorian front porch. The large dormer on the west side of the house was added in the late 1970s. (pdf source)