The similarly designed houses at 69 and 75 Olmsted Street in East Hartford were both built as rental properties about 1890 by Herbert S. Keeney, who probably did not himself reside in town. He later sold the house at #69 to Louise K. Seymour and owned #75 (pictured above) until the 1920s.
As related in Houses of Essex, Vol. I, by Donald Malcarne (2004, Ivoryton Library Association), page 86, the house at 1 Main Street in Ivoryton (on the edge of Centerbrook) in Essex was built circa 1826 on land acquired in that year by Ezra Parker, just east of where his brother, Daniel Parker, had also purchased land for a homestead in the same year. The land had been part of the holdings of the Williams family, descendants of Charles Williams, the first iron maker in Potapoug Quarter (part of which would become the Town of Essex). Ezra Parker sold the house in 1843 and moved to Michigan. The house later returned to the Parker family when Chauncey Spencer, Jr., married to Ezra’s niece Temperance, bought it in 1864. It then remained in the family until 1910. The current front entrance portico and larger chimney are alterations made since the mid-1950s.
Wallace Barnes began manufacturing springs for clocks in Bristol in 1857. His grandsons, Fuller and Henry Barnes, developed the business into the Associated Spring Corporation, created by a merger of three companies in 1922. They also acquired other companies, including the spring-making firm of Dunbar Brothers. Fuller Barnes (1887-1955) served as president and his brother, Henry Clarke Barnes (1889-1966), was secretary-treasurer. In 1920, Fuller acquired a large property in Bristol where he and his brother would erect their mansions. Fuller built the Colonial Revival house called Copper Ledges in 1924 and Henry built the 32-room Tudor-style residence called Chimney Crest in 1930-1931. Located at 5 Founders Drive in Bristol, the house was designed by Perry & Bishop of New Britain. It was home to Henry and his wife, Lilian Houbertz Barnes (1891-1986) until they moved to Green Acre Farms on Perkins Street in Bristol. In the 1960s the Barnes mansions were used by Laurel Crest Academy, a prep school for boys, and more recently
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In 1840, Capt. Titus Case (1769-1845) erected the house at 144 Cherry Brook Road in Canton. This had previously been the location of the home of Sgt. Daniel Case II, who’d arrived in the 1740s and built the first gristmill in town. Calvin Case also operated a mill, located west of the house, that had a 50-foot water wheel. His descendants used the house as a summer home. A historical case in the Canton Center Congregational Church was given in memory of his daughter, Kate Minerva Marsh (1836-1888). A later owner was Jeremiah Crowley, who made butter in the nearby creamery. The house’s cupola was added after the Civil War.
The oldest part of the house at 21 Marjorie Circle in Hebron was erected about 1760 (the date displayed on the house) and was a two-room hotel kept by Mary Fuller, wife of Ebenezer Fuller. The house was enlarged in 1770 by Roger Fuller (whose name is displayed on the house). The front entrance design dates to the early nineteenth century.
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Henry Bennett Graves (1823-1891) was a lawyer in Litchfield who served several terms in the state General Assembly. He was also executive secretary to Governor Henry Dutton and he married the governor’s daughter, Mary Dutton. His second wife was Sarah Smith of Morris. In 1858 Graves built a Greek Revival house at 153 South Street in Litchfield. The house was sold to Cornelius M. Ray of Morris in 1865. After his death, the house passed to his daughter, Clara Belle Ray. The Ray family made alterations to the house, including the addition of the mansard roof and the south bay. Elizabeth Shields Hamlin bought the property in 1910. In the collection of the Litchfield Historical Society are blueprints for the building of a garage, an extension of the dining room, and other alterations to the house, made by Ross & McNeil, architects of New York. They were hired by Elizabeth’s husband, Elbert B. Hamlin in 1915. After her husband’s death in 1936, Elizabeth Hamlin sold the house in 1937.
James Gladwin (1774-1850), a farmer in the Higganum section of Haddam, purchased a tract of land along what is now Saybrook Road in 1806. Soon thereafter, around 1810, he built the house at 352 Saybrook Road for his new wife, Margaret Tripp. They had twelve children, nine boys and three girls. After Gladwin’s death, the other siblings quitclaimed the house to his youngest daughter, Julia Ann Taylor, wife a Warren Taylor, a farmer who also owned a livery stable. The house was sold out of the family in 1875. Julia Gladwin Taylor later lived in Clinton and died in 1909 at the age of 85.
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