13 West Mystic Avenue, Mystic (1840)

The Greek Revival house at 13 West Mystic Avenue in Mystic was built in 1840 by the Chapman family. From 1956 to 1961, it was the home of Captain (later Admiral) James F. Calvert, who commanded the USS Skate, the third US nuclear submarine to be commissioned and the second submarine to reach the North Pole. Skate first went under the polar ice cap on August 11, 1958, but the thickness of the ice prevented it from surfacing. Skate later became the first submarine to surface at the North Pole on 17 March 1959.

Holley Homestead (1752)

In 1746, Sylvanus Freeman purchased a farm in the Wormwood Hill area of Mansfield and in 1752 he built a gambrel-roofed house on the property. Freeman sold the farm in 1764 and it passed through several other owners until 1817, when it was acquired by Selah Holley, a widow from Charlestown, Rhode Island, whose husband had passed away two years before. She lived in the homestead with her children, among whom was Perry Holley, who continued to reside in the house with his mother after his marriage in 1830 to Lois Fenton. As described in the Commemorative Biographical Record of Tolland and Windham Counties, Connecticut (1903), Perry Holley

was born July 2, 1809, in Rhode Island, and came to Mansfield when a boy. During his boyhood he worked upon the farm, and when still a young man learned the trade of forger, working at the manufacture of bits and augers in various localities where those goods were made; he was also one of the first operators of the trip hammer, being very expert in the handling of the clumsy machine, and consequently commanded good wages. In company with Hiram Parker he operated a forge shop near his house for a few years. After working at his trade for many years, he spent his declining years in Mansfield, farming, and died there in March, 1885. In religion he was a member of the Methodist Church at Gurleyville, and when a young man took a very active part in its affairs. Mr. Holly married Lois Fenton, a native of Mansfield, daughter of Elisha and Phileta (Storrs) Fenton, where her father was a blacksmith. Mrs. Holly died on April I8, 1892, aged eighty-four years, four months, to a day.

The Holley Homestead was sold out of the family in 1889 to Mary F. Sewall of Montclair, New Jersey, who used it as a summer home. One autumn, as she prepared to return to New Jersey for the winter, she asked a local carpenter to build an addition to the house. When she returned next summer, she was astonished to find that he had built what was essentially an entirely new house attached to the old gambrel-roofed colonial. The original house was later altered with the addition of a porch and gables. After 14 years of ownership, Sewell sold the house to Elizabeth Scheib Doty of Brooklyn, whose husband, Ethan Allen Doty (d. 1915), owned a large paper mill called Doty & Scrimgeour. The house, located at 627 Wormwood Hill Road, was next sold in 1931 to Stanley Kunitz, a well-known poet who worked on restoring the structure. It was again sold in 1935 to John Plimpton, who rented out rooms in the house. It is still owned by his heirs.

9 South Canterbury Road, Canterbury (1820)

The Federal-style house at 9 South Canterbury Road was built c.1820 and has a porch on the front and side that was added later. In the 1850s, the house was owned by Marvin H. Sanger, a merchant, banker and politician. According to the Illustrated Popular Biography of Connecticut (1891):

Marvin Hutchins Sanger was born in Brooklyn, in Windham county, April 12, 1827. In his infancy his parents removed to Canterbury, where he was educated in the public schools, and at Bacon Academy in Colchester, and was kept at home assisting his father upon the farm until he reached the age of eighteen. Then followed two years of experience in a country store as clerk, which served as a preparation for the business of general merchandizing which he followed in Canterbury for twenty years, from 1849 to 1869 […] November 14, 1855, he was married to Miss Mary J. Bacon, daughter of the late Benjamin Bacon of Plainfield. They have had two children, both daughters. Mr. Sanger has been a lifelong democrat […] He has long been a justice of the peace and has thus been much occupied in the trial of criminal cases. He was elected town clerk and treasurer in 1852, and has been re-elected ever since with the exception of two years. He has been judge of probate for about a quarter of a century, and was postmaster at Canterbury for fifteen years under various presidential administrations. He has been on the board of directors of the Brooklyn Savings Bank, and now for several years has been its president. He represented Canterbury in the state legislature in 1857, 1860, 1882, 1887, and 1889; was secretary of state for four successive years, from 1873 to 1877 and was democratic candidate for state treasurer in the autumn of 1890, receiving an apparent majority of all the votes cast, but failing to receive official recognition from the house of representatives at its session the following January, owing to a disagreement between the two branches of the legislature as to the accuracy or validity of the returns, –as was the case with all the candidates on the democratic state ticket, with the exception of the comptroller.

In the 1920s, the barn to the rear of the house was used by Hiram Hawes as a flyfishing-rod factory.

Skinner-Hammond House (1790)

At 765 Hartford Turnpike in Vernon Center is the impressive Federal-style Skinner-Hammond House, built around 1786-1790 by Reuben Skinner. It may have been the work of master builder Elisha Scott or one of his apprentices. Scott was born in Tolland and later lived in Poultney, Vermont. At one time, the house served as a tavern and public meeting place called Skinner’s Inn. The house was later owned by the Hammond family, who were pioneers establishing nearby Rockville‘s woolen industry in the mid-nineteenth century. Alterations were made to the house c.1830 and c.1890.