The house at 502-504 Silver Lane in East Hartford was built in 1740 by Russell Smith. It was later converted into a two-family house and, among many other changes, the current two chimneys probably replaced an original large center chimney.
Although surrounded by modern development, the old farmhouse at 750 Main Street South in Southbury has survived and is now home to the Carpino Funeral Home. The house was built in 1799 by Amos Johnson (1753-1824), but the kitchen ell on the south side is likely several decades older. Amos Johnson was a soldier in the Revolutionary War and later a town selectman.
At 1332 Storrs Road, on the campus of the University of Connecticut, is a colonial house that has served as student housing and is now UCONN’s Veterans House. The house was built c. 1757 and was the home of Cordial Storrs. This is most likely the Cordial Storrs (1692-1782) described in The Storrs Family (1886), by Charles Storrs:
Cordial Storrs of Mansfield, Conn., third son and ninth child of Samuel Storrs of Sutton-cum-Lound, Nottinghamshire, England, Barnstable, Mass., and Mansfield, Conn., was born in Barnstable, Mass., Oct. 14, 1692, and came with his father to Mansfield, Conn., in or about 1698. He married Hannah, daughter of Thomas Wood of Rowley, Mass. [They had four children]
Mrs. Hannah Wood Storrs died March 18, 1764. There is a tradition that she joined the Separatists and was disciplined by the church, but there is nothing in regard to this on the church records. The Separatist movement followed the great revivals which prevailed in Windham County in 1740-41. Itinerant preachers went about producing violent excitement among the people, decrying the old religious worship, and organizing new churches.
Cordial Storrs married, Oct. 10, 1765, Mrs. Catharine Bicknell, widow of (Capt.) Zachr. Bicknell of Ashford, Conn. He was sixty-seven [actually closer to 73] years of age at the time of this second marriage, and he seems to have contracted it with great care as to financial matters.
The farm and home of Cordial Storrs were in the North Parish. At the first church meeting of the Congregational church in that Parish, he was chosen deacon “by a very unanimous vote;” an office which he held until his death at the advanced age of ninety years, Oct. 1782.
His son Cordial [born 1728] died, unmarried, in 1755, at the age of twenty-seven, and with him the male line of this branch of the family became extinct. [Their son Jabez died in 1826]
Another Cordial Storrs lived from c. 1758 to 1790 and married Lettice Cummings.
Local tradition holds that the house at 657 South Britain Road in Southbury was built c. 1770, but it is more likely that it was built c. 1835 by Benjamin P. Downs on the site of his family’s old homestead. In 1854 he sold the house to Sally Curtiss, widow of George Curtiss, so it is also known as Mrs. S. Curtiss House. It was extensively restored by Henry Bassett, who acquired the house in 1946.
At 668-670 Harbor Road in Southport is a 1787 building that was significantly altered in later years. It may give the impression of being a nineteenth-century mansard-roofed commercial block, but the upper floors began as the homestead of Miah Perry. It was possibly altered and expanded in 1834. By that time the building displayed the influence of the Dutch Colonial style with two low-pitched gambrel roofs intersecting at the street corner. In the 1870s, the house was raised by Nehemiah Jennings to sit above a commercial section. In one part of the new ground floor Jennings ran a market and post office, while the other part contained the John Wood dry goods store. Miss Mary Allis (1899-1987) purchased the building in 1947 and refurbished it the following year. She had started renting space for her antiques store on the southeast corner in 1945. Mary Allis was a major figure in the world of folk-art collecting.
This the 3,000th post at Historic Buildings of Connecticut! That’s 3,000 great buildings throughout the state!
Built circa 1895, the Victorian house at 973 Worthington Ridge in Berlin was originally the home of Mary Brandegee. She lived there until her death in 1909. Before the house was built, the property had once been owned by John Brandegee (died 1858) who ran the family store.
The house at 31 Broadway in North Haven was built in 1870 by builder Solomon Linsley for Frank L. Stiles (1854-1922), a prominent brick manufacturer. Stiles is described in the Legislative History and Souvenir of Connecticut (Vol. VII, 1909-1910):
Hon. Frank L. Stiles, of North Haven, Republican Senator from the Twelfth District, is the son of Isaac L. and Sophronia M. (Blakeslee) Stiles, and was born at North Haven July 12, 1854. He is a direct descendant of the Rev. Ezra Stiles, who was president of Yale College. He received his education at the famous Cheshire Academy and when eighteen years of age began to learn the brickmakers’ business in his father’s plant. Senator Stiles is now president and treasurer of the Stiles & Hart Brick Company, Taunton, Mass., president and treasurer of The Stiles & Reynolds Brick Company, Berlin, Conn., and also of the I. L. Stiles & Son Brick Company. North Haven, Conn., one of the largest establishments of its kind in the country. He is also deeply interested in agricultural pursuits, having half a dozen farms at North Haven and Taunton. On December 22, 1886. Senator Stiles married Mary Amelia Dickerman. a descendant of some of the old families of New England. He is a warden of St. John’s Episcopal Church, a thirty-second degree Mason, a member of the Union League of New Haven and of organizations in Meriden, Providence and other cities. He represented his town in the General Assembly of 1903. As chairman, this session, of the Committee on Agriculture, he promoted the enactment of legislation salutary to the entire state. Senator Stiles was also chairman of the Committee on Forfeited Rights and a member of the Committee on Incorporations. He is treasurer of the Connecticut Legislative Club of 1909. Senator Stiles has a wide circle of strong friends who greatly admire him for his sterling qualities and upright character.
The house is now called the Criscuolo Building and houses medical offices.
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