O’Brian Funeral Home (1890)

O'Brian Funeral Home

Since 1942, the house at 24 Lincoln Avenue in the Forestville section of Bristol has been the O’Brian Funeral Home, which had been founded in downtown Bristol in 1909. According to the Funeral Home’s website, the house was built in 1890 as a wedding gift from Elias N. Welch to his daughter H. Drusilla Mitchell, but H. Drusilla Mitchell was married to George H. Mitchell in 1857 and her father was Elisha N. Welch, who died in 1887. The website also states that the house’s facade facing East Main Street was designed to resemble a riverboat with its rounded stern and double deck.

Alfred Platt House (1790)

127 Mansion House Rd., Southbury

The house at 127 Mansion House Road in Southbury may have been built around 1790 by Simeon Mitchell (d. 1826), whose son would build the nearby Mitchell Mansion House in 1829. Simeon’s daughter Anna sold the house in 1837 and it was then owned by the Curtiss and Monson families. In the 1880s the house was owned by William C. Beecher, who altered it by removing its original central-chimney and replacing it with the present two chimneys. He also added the bay window on the south side. William C. Beecher is described in the History of New Haven County, Vol. II (1892), edited by J. L. Rockey:

William C. Beecher, born in Southbury May 28th, 1828, is a son of Nathaniel and Hannah (Peck) Beecher, and grandson of Nathaniel. [. . .] William C. married Mary E. Strong, of Woodbury, April 4th, 1855. They have six children [. . .] Mr. Beecher enlisted in 1862, in Company B, 13th Connecticut Regiment, as second lieutenant, helping to recruit this company, he being the only commissioned officer from Southbury. He served under General Butler, participating in the taking of New Orleans, and afterward under General Banks. He was discharged on account of ill health February 5th, 1863, and returned to Southbury. After regaining his health, he was engaged in superintending railroad construction, his first work being on the Hartford, Providence & Fishkill road. Twelve years later he assisted in the completion of the same line under the name of the New York & New England railroad. He also assisted in building the Connecticut Valley, Providence & Springfield and the D. L. & W. railroads.

Alfred and Mary Platt owned the house from 1900 to 1935. Alfred Platt was Woodbury’s first rural delivery mail carrier.

Dr. Joseph Foote House (1794)

Dr. Joseph Foote House

The house at 2 Church Street, corner of Broadway, in North Haven was built in 1794. Its original resident was Dr. Joseph Foote, who is described by Sheldon Brainerd Thorpe in North Haven Annals (1894):

Prior to 1760 but little is known of the medical history of the parish. In that year Dr. Walter Munson came here and is the first known practitioner. In 1790 he was the regularly established physician of the town. In the latter year, a rival entered his field, in the person of Dr. Joseph Foot, born in Northford, Conn., 1770.

Dr. Foot was hopeful and enthusiastic, and his devotion to his calling, gave him in a brief time a place among the North Haven people. Dr. Munson abandoned the field in a few years and his successor thus became fully installed as the “town physician.” He purchased of the widow of the tory Lemuel Bradley, the corner, now known as the Cowles property, and in 1794 began the erection of the present dwelling.

Having made a home ready, he married Mary Bassett of Hamden, February 16, 1797. [. . .] Dr. Griggs says of her: “She came to do her husband good; she was a prudent woman from the Lord; she was not content to promote his temporal interests, she endeavored to win him to Christ by her own consistent piety.”

These counsels, it is recorded, he did not always heed. It was not until her death, after only four years of married life, in which two children, Mary and Jared, were born, that he realized her value. Her loss proved in a measure his salvation. He became thoughtful attentive to his Bible, and a participant in many religious duties.

His second wife was Eunice Foote of Northford Conn., second cousin to him and likewise a descendant of Nathaniel Foote. Her he married January 26, 1803. Four children were born of this union [. . .]

As a physician his skill early won for him the confidence of the public. He was highly esteemed by his medical brethren. His specialty was the
treatment of febrile diseases.

At his advent here, his sole possessions were a horse and a watch. He accumulated a goodlv property by his industry. His circuit was not confined to
North Haven, for he frequently visited Durham, Wallingford, Cheshire, North Branford, “Dragon,” Hamden, and had he so chosen, could have farther widened his area of practice. His charges were moderate, from twenty-five cents to half a dollar being the usual fee for a professional call, except in cases at long distance. The main stock remedies he always carried, esteeming it a hardship to compel his patrons to ride to New Haven for medicines which he could easily carry in his “saddle-bags” or tin box. He died April 24, 1836, aged 66 years, and was buried in the old cemetery. An imposing red granite obelisk marks his resting place, on the south face of which is written:

AN EMINENT CHRISTIAN PHYSICIAN.

The house was later owned by Rev. Orson Cowles and then by Frank L. Stiles, a wealthy brick manufacturer, who also built a house on Broadway in North Haven.