Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Houses

Ebenezer Evans House (1767)

According to the sign on the Ebenezer Evans House at 17 Long Bottom Road in Southington, the house was built “before 1767.” According to Heman R. Timlow’s Ecclesiastical and Other Sketches of Southington, Conn. (1875), Ebenezer Evans was the

son of Ebenezer and Mary Gridley, his wife, b. Sept. 19, 1742, in Farmington (Southington parish); m. Jan. 19, 1769, Sarah, daughter of Reuben Munson, of Southington. He resided in Southington, where Josiah H. Merriman now lives. He removed to Conway, Mass., where he was living in 1782; but returned to Southington, where he died of influenza, March 24, 1816, aged 75 years.

Anson Merriman (1786-1853) moved to the house in 1832. His father, Chauncey Merriman, had already started a farm on land purchased from Ebenezer Evans in 1809. Anson started the apple orchard on the farm that was continued by his son, Josiah H. Merriman (1834-1912), and then by Josiah’s daughter Sarah (1867-1957) and her husband (m. 1888) Elijah Rogers (1861-1949), who was one of the first farmers in Connecticut to grow peaches commercially. The Rogers Orchard continues today.

John Bishop House (1810)

The John Bishop House is a Federal-style house in Newent in Lisbon. The Bishop family were early settlers of Lisbon, when it was a part of Norwich. The house is notable for having a well shaft in the pantry/buttery, so the family did not have to go outside to get water. The house is now the John Bishop Museum, run by the Lisbon Historical Society. Work was done in 2011 to replace the house’s wood roofing.

Case Block (1881)

The Case Block, at 22-28 Spring Street in Bristol, was built as row house block of four apartments by the builder/architect Joel Case. It was constructed a year after Case’s Castle Largo, located on nearby Center Street, which is also built of brick. Case had laid out Spring Street and, after the Case Block, proceeded to build the other houses on the street. After many years of having its original Italianate style obscured by the loss of its exterior decorative elements (including its front entry porches) and many layers of paint, the Case Block was later restored to its original distinctive appearance.

Phineas Squires House (1790)

The house at 888 Worthington Ridge in Berlin was built c. 1890 by Phineas Squires. In 1811 Squires sold the house to Rev. Samuel Goodrich (1763-1835), the third pastor of the Berlin Congregational Church, serving from 1811 to 1833. He had previously been the pastor at the Congregational Church in Ridgefield for 25 years. Rev. Goodrich was the father of Samuel Griswold Goodrich (1793-1860), the children’s author who wrote under the name “Peter Parley.” Another son was Rev. Charles A. Goodrich (1790-1862), who was also an author of such books as The Child’s History of the United States. According to Catharine M. North’s History of Berlin (1916):

The Rev. Charles A. Goodrich, who was a public-spirited citizen, continued to live on his father’s place until 1847, when he removed to Hartford, where he died in 1862. Mr. Goodrich had a comfortable study in his south yard where he could be quiet while working on his books. That building is now attached to the rear of Mrs. William A. Riley’s house.

The house was altered in the mid-19th century when the ground floor windows were enlarged and the Greek-Revival entry portico was added.

Silas Hoadley House (1790)

Built around 1790, the house at 721 Main Street in Plymouth was the home of Silas Hoadley, a clockmaker. A cousin of the architect and builder David Hoadley, Silas Hoadley (1786-1870) formed the clock-making partnership of Terry, Thomas & Hoadley with Seth Thomas and Eli Terry in 1809. His partners later withdrew to form their own companies and Hoadley continued making clocks on his own until 1849.

Thomas Williams House (1759)

Constructed in 1759, the house at 363 Washington Street in Norwich was the home Thomas Williams, a tailor, who also had his shop on the property. He sold the house to William Beard of Preston in 1798 and moved away from Norwich. A series of small shopkeepers then owned the building.

Clifford B. Wilson House (1915)

The Colonial Revival house at 720 Clinton Avenue in Bridgeport was built in 1915. It was the residence of Clifford Brittin Wilson (1879-1943), a lawyer who served as Mayor of Bridgeport from 1911 to 1921 and simultaneously as the 56th Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut from 1915 to 1921, the same period of time that Marcus H. Holcomb was serving as Governor. According to the History of Bridgeport and Vicinity, Volume II (1917), “there are few interests of public concern in recent years with which he has not been associated, his influence always being given on the side of progress, reform and improvement.”