James Lyman Kellam House (1850)

171 Ferry Lane, South Glastonbury

The house at 171 Ferry Lane in South Glastonbury was built circa 1850 by James Lyman Kellam (1824-1897), a farmer, on land his father, James Kellam (1789-1878), had acquired in 1816. It is a Greek Revival-style house with a later nineteenth-century front porch. In 1893, James Lyman Kellam took over the job of keeping the system of kerosene lamps along the shore of the Connecticut River that guided ships to the correct channel at a challenging location where the river bends. After his death, two of his sons who lived in the house took over the job: Arthur Lyman Kellam (1873-1936), who was the official light keeper, and Walter Bulkeley Kellam (1863-1958), who became assistant keeper in 1905. For decades, Walter Kellam, who was blind, would make his way down a narrow catwalk every night to light the oil lamps. On May 31, 1931, the Hartford Courant had a profile of Walter Kellam (“Blind, He Lights the Way for Others: For Past 25 Years, Walter Kellam Has Tended River Beacons At South Glastonbury”), in which he describes lighting the lamps during a blizzard in 1926 and during the flood of 1927. Near the house is a historic barn which today is part of Horton Farm. The farm also has a number of historic tobacco sheds.

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12 Chestnut Street, Bethel (1850)

Former Walker Ferry Shoe Store in Bethel

The building at 12 Chestnut Street in Bethel was once a commercial structure, with storefronts on the first floor and a two-level residence above. Walker Ferry (1822-1906), a shoemaker, had started business on the site in 1845. In about 1850, he tore down the earlier building and replaced it with the current one, which he occupied for many decades. At first he manufactured shoes on the first floor, employing a number of men, but later ceased shoemaking and switched to operating a retail shoe store, retiring shortly before his death in 1906. A c. 1890 image shows the shoe store on the right and McDowell’s Meat Market on the left.

Pledger-Miller-Dunklee House (1803)

Jacob Pledger (1762-1822) emigrated from England in 1795 with the family of his wife, Sarah Watkinson, and settled in Middletown, where he worked as an agent for the Middletown Brewery. In 1800 he acquired land from his father-in-law Samuel Watkinson, Sr. (1745-1816) and in 1803 erected at 717 Newfield Street what is now one of five surviving brick Federal-style houses in Middletown. Pledger farmed the surrounding land, which was evenly divided along both sides of Newfield Street. [His daughter Eliza would be a student at Sara Pierce‘s Litchfield Female Academy in 1814] Samuel Miller (1782-1856) purchased the house and farm in 1813. It was later owned by his son, Augustus Henry Miller (1816-1895), and then by Augusts’ daughter, Bernice M. Dunklee (1872-1965), whose husband, Henry F. Dunklee (1905-1961), managed the farm. Their son, Earle M. Dunklee (1898-1976) acquired the property in 1953 and sold it to the city in 1969. The house was purchased by Dr. Peter Nelson in 1975 in a sale that included architectural covenants to protect the integrity of the building‘s historic structure. Dr. Nelson adapted the building into professional offices (it is home to Dr. Nelson’s Advanced Cosmetic Dentistry).

Bragg-Holland House (1890)

As featured yesterday, J. Merrick Bragg, a prominent East Hartford builder, and Horatio Hardendorf, a Hartford resident, developed four adjacent lots on Olmstead Street in East Hartford, each quit-claiming two of the four properties to the other in 1890. Hardendorf took the two central houses, while Bragg took the two outer ones, 85 Olmstead Street and 95 Olmstead Street (pictured above). He sold No. 85 immediately and No. 95 a year later in 1891 to Charles T. Holland of Boston, who briefly lived in East Hartford.

Hardendorf-Bragg-Wickham House (1890)

The house at 91 Olmstead Street in East Hartford was on one of four lots developed by J. Merrick Bragg, a prominent builder in town, and Horatio Hardendorf, a Hartford resident. In 1890 Bragg and Hardendorf split the properties, with Hardendorf taking 91 Olmstead Street and its neighbor to the west and Bragg taking the other two (85 and 95 Olmstead Street), flanking Hardendorf’s houses. Bragg quickly sold his houses, but Hardendorf held on to his for a while as properties to rent out. In 1895 he sold 91 Olmstead Street to William H. Wickham, a clerk.

Cornwell-Daniels House (1780)

Elisha Cornwell (1721-1781) one of the original settlers of East Hampton, erected the house at 64 South Main Street (facing Daniels Street) in 1780 on land he had purchased the year before. He quickly sold the house to his daughter and died the following year. Amasa Daniels, Jr. purchased the property in 1803. His granddaughter, Caroline Brown Buell (1842-1927) grew up in the house. Her father, Rev. Thomas Gibson Brown, an itinerant Methodist and chaplain during the Civil War, had married Amasa’s daughter, Caroline. Caroline B. Brown, whose husband, Lt. Frederick W. H. Buell, died of malaria in the Civil War, would become a leader of the temperance movement, writing and lecturing extensively and serving as corresponding secretary of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. She retired to East Hampton where she died in 1927.