Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Houses

Roxbury Congregational Church (1838)

In 1731 residents of the Shippaug district of Woodbury petitioned the General Assembly to have their own minister during the winter months, when travel to the meeting house in Woodbury was difficult. The petition was granted and the following year a small meeting house was erected on the crest of the first ridge west of the present Roxbury-Woodbury town line. In 1743 the residents of Shippaug became a separate Ecclesiastical Society from Woodbury under the name of Roxbury. A new meeting house on the same site was built in 1746. The next meeting house was built in the present town center of Roxbury (approximately at what is now 12 Church Street) in 1795. The following year, Roxbury was incorporated as a town. The current meeting house of the Roxbury Congregational Church was built at 24 Church Street in 1838.

Thomas A. Smith House (1860)

The Thomas A. Smith House in Northford (in North Branford) is a Greek Revival residence built in 1860. Located at 16 Old Post Road, it was built for Thomas A, Smith, president of the Paug Manufacturing Company, and was later owned by Stanley T. Williams. In 1957 the house became the parish hall for the Northford Congregational Church.

Grace Church Rectory, Windsor (1865)

Built c. 1865 as the Rectory (priest’s residence) of Grace Episcopal Church, the building at 301 Broad Street in Windsor is an excellent example of the Gothic Revival style with such features as decorative bargeboards.

Daniel Glazier House (1808)

The house at 277 Tolland Turnpike in Willington was built sometime before 1808 by Daniel Glazier, the property being separated from a larger tract on which the Daniel Glazier Tavern would be built c. 1815. The town pound, where stray cattle were kept, was nearby and a number of those who lived in the house, including Glazier, were pound keepers. Across the street is a historic barn associated with the house. The barn was built in the early to mid-nineteenth century. The house no longer has its original central chimney.

Capt. Sylvanus Griswold House (1790)

The house at 1832 Poquonock Avenue in Windsor was built c. 1790 by Capt. Sylvanus Griswold (1733-1811). A prominent and wealthy man, Sylvanus Griswold served as a lieutenant in the Revolutionary War. His son, Gaylord Griswold, was admitted to the bar in 1790. He is described in Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College, Vol. IV (1907), by Franklin Bowditch Dexter:

the fourth son and fifth child of Captain Silvanus Griswold, of Windsor, Connecticut, one of the wealthiest and most influential men in Hartford County, and grandson of Captain Benjamin and Esther (Gaylord) Griswold, of Windsor, was born on December 20, 1767. His mother was Mary Collins, of Wallingford, Connecticut.

Gaylord moved to New York State in 1792. The house was owned by Charles W. Hathaway in the mid-nineteenth century.

Josiah Kimberly House (1827)

The house at 144 East Plymouth Road in East Plymouth was built c. 1800. From 1827 to c. 1860 it was owned by Josiah Kimberly, a tanner and shoemaker. Kimberly took over the tannery business begun in East Plymouth by the Gaylord and Tuttle families. His son Eber E. Kimberly would continue in his father’s trade. Located at 148 East Plymouth Road is the house built c. 1870 by Eber’s son, Frederick Kimberly. As described in Francis Atwater’s History of the Town of Plymouth, Connecticut (1895):

The elder Cyrus Gaylord above alluded to, at one time also did carding in a building near the dam now standing on the same stream a short distance from his house, Josiah Kimberly at the same time using a part of the building for a tannery.

Somewhat later Mr. Kimberly had a tannery on the same stream between the grist mill and Stephen Blake’s. This tannery was afterwards conducted by Eber Kimberly.

Fowler-Frisbie-West House (1682)

The structure at 33 and 37 Fair Street in Guilford has had a long and complicated history. By 1740 Mehitabel and Anna Fowler lived in a house at 33 Fair Street. A title search has revealed that their house had been built c. 1682 by the Fowler Sisters’ father and transferred to them in 1727. The house was acquired in 1824 by Russell Frisbie, who may have rebuilt or replaced the original house. In 1864, an Italian Villa-style structure (with the address of 37 Fair Street), either moved from elsewhere or newly erected, was attached to the older house. Here resided Frisbie‘s granddaughter Cornelia and her husband, Dr. Benjamin West. Their son, Dr. Redfield West altered the entire building to have a Gothic appearance, but it was later returned to its earlier appearance. Dr. Redfield West had earlier practiced medicine in New York, Boston and New Haven. As related in the Proceedings of the Connecticut State Medical Society (1921)

In order to be with his parents in their declining years, he removed to Guilford in 1892, opened his office in the house in which he was born and where he died, and soon succeeded in establishing a large and lucrative practice. Early in life he became intensely interested and very successful in chemical researches, and in 1899, and also 1900, was granted letters patent for improvements in photographic printing. In 1894 Dr. West was appointed by Governor Morris, State Chemist; reappointed by Governor Coffin in 1896; again by Governor Cooke in 1898, and by Governor Lounsbury in 1900. In 1897 he was appointed town health officer for Guilford, and also medical examiner in the same year, offices which he held for a period of years.

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