Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Houses

Asa Welles House (1852)

Currently dedicated to office use, the Italianate house at 2534 Main Street in Glastonbury was built circa 1852. It was originally the home of Asa Welles, who may be the same Asa Welles (1821-1869) who was a silversmith.

Jotham Woodruff House (1790)

The house at 137-139 Woodruff Street in Southington was built c. 1790 (it was once thought to have been built in 1735). It was the home of Jotham Woodruff (1771-1859) and his son Lewis (born 1803). Jotham Woodruff married Esther Lewis in 1793. The house has a later Greek Revival doorway and gable ends.

Phineas Squires Case House (1750)

The Phineas Squires Case House, at 1121 Worthington Ridge in Berlin, is a central-chimney colonial house, built c. 1750-1770. The property, later owned by the Bunce family, has a barn which once housed a disassembled homebuilt replica of a Curtiss-Type Pusher plane, built by 17-year old Howard S. Bunce in 1912. Unable to afford a Curtiss engine, Bunce used a 4-cylinder air-cooled engine constructed by Nels J. Nelson of New Britain. The oldest surviving airplane in Connecticut, it was discovered in the barn in 1962 and can now be seen at the New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks.

Emory Johnson Homestead (1842)

On Johnsonville Road in Moodus, East Haddam, is an Italianate-style house built (according to the sign on the house) in 1842. It was the home of Emory Johnson, who owned twine mills near the Johnson Mill Pond across from his home. In the nineteenth century, Moodus was the “Twine Capital of America,” with twelve mills in operation. Johnson’s father-in-law, Stanton S. Card, owned the Neptune Twine Mills, which he left to his son-in-law at his death in 1867. Johnson had already opened his own mill, called Triton, in 1862. The area of worker housing that grew up around the mills became known as Johnsonville. The two mills continued to be operated by Emory Johnson and then by his son, E. Emory Johnson, who died in 1905. In the 1960s, the house and other Johnsonville properties were acquired by Raymond Schmitt and became a Victorian era attraction. Closed in 1994 and vacant for many years, the property was recently sold.

Col. John Hale House (1784)

At 1278 Main Street in Glastonbury is a center-chimney house built c. 1784 by Colonel John Hale. A 1789 deed conveyed the property from Deacon David Hale (1727-1796) to his son, Col. John Hale, whose house had already been built. Col. John Hale (1759-1817) served in the state General Assembly from 1796 to 1799 and as Glastonbury Town Clerk from 1804-1817.

Laurilla Smith Cottage (1857)

Its steeply pitched roof makes the Laurilla Smith Cottage, at 1626 Main Street in Glastonbury, a distinctive building. The cottage was planned in 1853 by Laurilla Aleroyla Smith (1789-1857) and finished after her death by her family in 1857 as a memorial to her. An artist, Laurilla A. Smith was a student at Sarah Pierce’s Female Academy in Litchfield and later taught at at Emma Willard’s School in Troy, N.Y. and Catharine Beecher’s Hartford Female Seminary. She was the sister of Julia and Abby Smith, the famous activists who lived in Kimberly Mansion, the house across the street. Smith had planned for the cottage to be her art studio. It is now used by artist Harry White.

Joseph S. Williams House (1899)

A sign on the house (now used as a real estate office) at 62 Greenmanville Avenue in Mystic (in Stonington) indicates that it was the home of Joseph S. Williams, yeoman, and was built in 1899. Joseph S. Williams was no doubt related to Joseph Stanton Williams, whose farm once dominated the eastern side of Greenmanville Avenue. In the 1890s, the farm was developed into an industrial area. The old Joseph S. Williams farmhouse, which stood on the hill east of what is now Mystic Seaport, later fell into disrepair and was burned in the 1950s.