Eli Curtiss, a successful manufacturer of Panama hats in Watertown, married Alma Southmayd DeForest in 1832. Although Curtiss had a Greek Revival house, built in 1837 on North Street, he soon decided to erect a larger residence (c. 1840) at 90 DeForest Street on land his wife received from her father in 1839. The house is transitional in style, displaying Greek Revival corner pilasters and a Federal doorway. At one time the hip-roofed house also had a cupola.
Joseph Clark, a carpenter who built many houses in East Hartford, erected the house at 74 Burnside Avenue circa 1877, a few years later than another Italianate house he built at 66 Burnside Avenue. Unlike its neighbor, the house at no. 74 lacks a cupola, but has an Eastlake-style front porch. It is adjacent to Clark Street, which was named for Joseph Clark. (more…)
At 66 Burnside Avenue in East Hartford is a beautifully preserved Italianate house. The exterior has recently been repainted. It was built in 1872 by Joseph Clark, a builder who constructed a number of houses in East Hartford. (more…)
The grand Italianate house, now used for commercial purposes, at 263 Saybrook Road in Higganum in Haddam was built in 1875 as the home of Thomas J. Clark (1831-1910). He was a founder of the Higganum Manufacturing Company, later called Cutaway Harrow, which produced farm equipment. As described in The Conservative Advocate: a Book of Biographies of Connecticut’s Successful Men (1900)
Thomas J. Clark, Vice President of the Cutaway Harrow Company, is as well known as any man in Middlesex County. He was born in Haddam, September 21, 1831, and with the exception of two years spent in Georgia and Florida, has always resided there. He attended Rev. James Noyes’ private seminary in Haddam and then engaged in the business of stone cutting. Later he became a house builder. Since 1865 he has manufactured farm implements. He has been a life long Republican and is a member of the Congregational Society, He is president of the Higganum Savings Bank, a member of the Granite Lodge Masons and has represented his town acceptably in the Legislature. Mr. Clark is most highly esteemed and is a splendid type of the sturdy New Englander.
As further described in the History of Middlesex County, Connecticut with Biographical Sketches of its Prominent Men (1884):
When he was but 15 years of age, he commenced working in the quarries and doing odd jobs of mason work. The strong spirit of self-reliance and independence were manifested at this early age, and thee years later he started for Apalachicola, landing there in the fall of the year an entire stranger. He didn’t sit down, Micawber like, “waiting for something to turn up,” but soon after engaged as an assistant in the engineer’s department of a cotton pressing establishment. He soon learned to run an engine and earned good wages as an engineer. For two or three years he spent his winters at Apalachicola, and his summers at the north working at his trade as a stone mason. For several years after this he was engaged in the construction of important works at different places, among which was the Asylum Street Depot in Hartford, erected in 1848. He subsequently entered into partnership with his brother, George M., taking large contracts for the erection of bridges, mill works, factories, etc., the stone and mason work being entirely under his supervision. He was engaged with his brother in the erection of the Russell Manufacturing Company’s building at Higganum, and soon after this started with his brother the extensive manufacturing business now carried on by the Higganum Manufacturing Company.
Mr. Clark is modest and retiring in his habits, but possesses those sterling qualities which go to make up the solid men of our country. He has never sought political honors, but attended quietly to his business affairs, and has aided materially in the development of one of the most prominent branches of industry in this country. In this he is now, and has been from the commencement of the business, and important factor. He is vice-president and has the general management of the mechanical department of the Higganum Manufacturing Company.
On the 7th of December 1854 he married Elizabeth Quick, of Masthope, Pa., by whom he has had four children: Arthur, born August 2d 1858; Effie Elizabeth, born December 21st 1860; Alvan Thomas, born October 14th 1862; and Ada Selden, born February 24th 1871.
The death of the his first wife occurred on the 13th of July 1873, and on the 4th of November 1874 he married Sophia M. Warner, of Montrose, Pa. One child, Nina Gertrude, is the issue of this marriage.
Until quite recently Mr. Clark has taken no active part in public affairs, but during the fall of 1884 the people of his native town insisted on his accepting the position of selectman, which his long experience and thorough knowledge of the duties incident thereto fully qualify him to fill.
The house at 79 Main Street in Somers was built in 1765 by Ebenezer Spencer (died 1787). His grandson, Chester Spencer, who was born in 1783, later lived on the family farm. Chester Spencer ran a dry goods store, called Spencer & Chaffee, in the village of Somersville with his brother-in-law, Elam Chaffee (1783-1855), who had married Elizabeth Spencer (1787-1865). Chester Spencer was also a partner in the construction of the first woolen mill in the town of Somers, purchasing two looms to produce satinet in 1835.
A farmer in Middlefield, Cyrus C. Birdsey was the son of John and Esther Coe Birdsey. In 1851 Cyrus married [Mary-]Jane Bacon and moved into the house at 30 Lyman Road, which had recently been built, probably in anticipation of Cyrus’ marriage. A Greek Revival house, it has a front gable end with an unusual diagonal clapboard pattern.
The summer cottage at 25 Pettipaug Avenue in the Borough of Fenwick in Old Saybrook was built circa 1871 on land sold that year to Mrs. Cyrus Knight. Her husband, Rev. Cyrus Frederick Wright was rector of the Church of the Incarnation (later renamed St. James’ Episcopal Church) in Hartford from 1870 to 1877. He resigned after an incident in which church funds were stolen by the parish treasurer. Rev. Knight then served as rector of St. James Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, from 1877 to 1889, but continued to summer in Fenwick. When he became Bishop of Milwaukee in 1889, he and his wife could no longer make the long trip to Fenwick and therefore rented the cottage for the summer. Rev. Knight died in 1891 and his wife, Elizabeth P. Pickering Knight, in 1912. The cottage was then owned for a time by Heywood Whaples. It was purchased in 1952 by Ellsworth Grant (1917-2013) and his wife, Marion Hepburn Grant (1918-1986), the sister of Katharine Hepburn. The cottage has later rear additions. You can read more about the cottage in Marion Hepburn Grant’s The Fenwick Story (Connecticut Historical Society, 1974), pages 128-131.
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