Marcia Thompson Schoolhouse (1814)

Located on the property of the Andrew Baldwin House, 63 Main Street in North Stonington, is an 1814 one-room schoolhouse. Originally located on Taugwonk Road in Stonington, the school was in operation until the 1920s. In the late twentieth century, it was moved to its current location by Fred and Alma Lampert, who owned the Baldwin House. The couple had also built a gristmill and a replica of the original blacksmith shop on the property and used the old carriage house as a museum of historical artifacts. Their property contained the foundation of the North Stonington village’s own lost schoolhouse and the 1814 school building was moved onto it. The Limperts furnished the schoolhouse based on a photograph they received from Marcia Bentley Thompson (1892-1990) that showed her on her first day as a teacher in 1911 in a one-room school in the Clarks Falls section of North Stonington. When the restoration was completed the Limperts named it the Marcia Thompson Schoolhouse.

George & Florence Woods House (1820)

The current home of the Trumbull Historical Society is the a house located at 1856 Huntington Turnpike, in the Nichols section of Trumbull. The house was built in 1820 on the property of the Nichols family, land that went back to Abraham Nichols, one of the original founders of the town of Stratford. The last of the family to live in the house was Florence Nichols Woods (died 1973), whose husband, George Woods (died 1972), was president of Bridgeport’s People’s Bank. Their estate was noted for its gardens. The couple left their property to the Nichols Methodist Church. The church did not require the property, so the house and land, known as the Woods Estate, were purchased by the town in 1974. Since 1978 the house has been rented by the Historical Society, while the grounds are now Abraham Nichols Park.

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Lewis-Griswold-Case House (1835)

The older north section of the house at 80 Cherry Brook Road in Canton was built in 1835 by Daniel Lewis. Its next owner was Chauncey Griswold, a schoolteacher who became a maker of medicine. Starting in the 1840s, he produced a popular salve to treat burns and skin ailments. Griswold later lived with his daughter and her husband in the Gardner Mills House in Canton. His heirs continued to make the salve after Griswold’s death and later sold the formula to the Sisson Drug Company Hartford, which produced it until 1955 when it was discontinued due to its high lead content. The house was enlarged in 1893 by William Case, who brought down the ell from another property.

James Leavenworth House (1842)

The house at 28 Church Street in Roxbury was built c. 1842 by James Leavenworth (b. 1815). It was later owned by Charles Beardsley (1807-1888), builder of the Roxbury Congregational Church, and continued in his family until it was acquired by the church for use as a parsonage. It was the church’s second parsonage, used after the house at 16 Church Street, built in 1883, which is now a private residence. (more…)