Henry B. Bissell House (1850)

The Henry B. Bissell House, built in 1850, is located at 202 Maple Street in the Bantam section of Litchfield. In an area with numerous eighteenth and nineteenth-century wood frame farmhouses, it is a rare example of a stone house, being constructed of ashlar granite. The Bissell family, descended from one of Litchfield’s earliest settlers, were major landowners in Bantam. Henry B. Bissell (1814-1897), who built the house, was a deacon of the Congregational Church. He was described in 1896 in a Biographical Review volume entitled The Leading Citizens of Litchfield County, as “one of the most respected and prosperous agriculturists of this section of the county.” The book goes on to explain:

Deacon Henry B. Bissell had better educational advantages than were generally given a farmer’s son in his time. After finishing with the district schools he was sent to the seminary, where he was under the instruction of John P. Brace. He subsequently engaged in teaching, which he continued for six winters. His chief occupation, however, was assisting on the home farm, where he remained until twenty-eight years of age. Having by that time much experience in general farming he then bought the property on which he now resides. Since that time he has placed the two hundred and thirty acres of fertile land in a yielding condition and made many other valuable improvements, sparing neither time nor expense for that purpose. In 1850 Deacon Bissell erected his present residence, which stands on rising ground overlooking the village three miles distant, the granite used in its construction having been quarried on his own farm. He pays a good deal of attention to dairying, keeping some twenty head of fine cows, and finds this branch of his business quite profitable.

The house remained in the Bissell family until 1985, a period of 135 years.

Porter Gristmill House (1790)

The historic Porter Gristmill, which started operation in 1740 under the original mill operator Ebenezer Fuller, is located along Jeremy Brook at the west end of the Hebron Center Historic District. The original millworks were later moved to Old Sturbridge Village, where the millstones and other parts are now located in the village‘s 1938 Gristmill building. One of the surviving mill buildings, at 55 West Main Street in Hebron, is the miller’s house (pictured above), which was erected in 1790. The house’s front façade is one story, while the rear is three stories.

George Pettis House (1845)

The Greek Revival house at 568 Main Street in Portland was built in 1845 and remodeled in 1926. It was originally the home of George Pettis, a shoemaker. In 1927 the house was owned by Gothard A. Olson (1892-1984), whose flooring company, Gothard A Olson & Sons, is still in existence. The house was next owned by Aline E. Roman, who sold Harold Roman the adjacent land which he built the house at 564 Main Street in 1936-1937.

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).