995 Prospect Avenue, West Hartford (1916)

The house at 995 Prospect Avenue in West Hartford, across from the Governor’s Residence, was built in 1916 for Lewis E. Gordon, resident manager of the American Mutual Liability Insurance Company. From 1926 to 1989, the house was owned by Miss Ethel Frances Donaghue (pdf) (1896-1989). Her father, Patrick Donaghue, an Irish immigrant, became wealthy running a wholesale and retail liquor business and purchasing commercial real estate in downtown Hartford. A wealthy heiress, Ethel Donaghue earned a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania and an SJD from New York University School of Law. Specializing in real estate and trust law in Hartford, she practiced until 1933, when her mother was ill with cancer. Her father had passed away when she was in High School from heart disease.

Experiencing health problems of her own in her later years, Ethel Donaghue left the bulk of her wealth ($53 million) to the Patrick and Catherine Weldon Donaghue Medical Research Foundation to “promote medical knowledge which will be of practical benefit to the preservation, maintenance and improvement of human life.” After Donaghue was incapacitated by a series of strokes in 1980, there was a legal battle over control of her financial affairs between the two conservators of her estate, who were both later removed (pdf). The resulting scandal led to the resignation, in 1984, of Probate Judge James H. Kinsella, to avoid an impending impeachment vote in the Connecticut House of Representatives. The house on Prospect Avenue, vacant for a number of years after her death, passed through other owners. In 2011, the house was sold to George Jepsen, who is currently serving as the state’s Attorney General.

Rev. Joseph Graves House (1775)

On Miner Street, in the Westfield section of Middletown, across from the Third Congregational Church, is a house built sometime between 1775 and 1800, by Rev. Joseph Graves, first pastor of the Westfield Baptist Church. Rev. Graves was a descendent of Deacon John Graves, whose 1685 house is located in Madison. The house passed to Joseph Graves’s son, Josiah Graves, who also succeeded his father as Baptist minister. The house was in the family until 1884. It has matching additions on either side of the front facade.

Samuel T. Camp House (1865)

The Italianate-style house at 180 College Street in Middletown was built in 1865-1866 by Jeremiah Hubbard and sold, shortly thereafter, to Samuel Talcott Camp. In 1858, Camp had started a grocery business on Main Street with B.F. Chaffee. Camp was president of the Farmers & Mechanics Savings Bank, He was also a Trustee of Wesleyan University from 1880 to 1903. In 1905, the Board of Trustees established the Camp Prize in his memory, awarded for excellence in English Literature. After his death, his widow, Martha E. Smith Camp, remained in the house until her own death in 1924. The house was then acquired by Frank A. Smith, who added stucco to the exterior. (more…)

White-Stoddard House (1870)

Henry White built the house at 33 Pleasant Street in Middletown, which faces South Green, around 1870. White was in the coal business. As described in The Leading Business Men of Middeltown, Portland, Durham and Middlefield (1890):

The [coal] business now conducted by Mr. Levi S. Deming was founded many years ago by Mr. H. S. White, who was succeeded about 1860 by Messrs. White & Loveland, who gave place to Messrs. Loveland & Deming in 1871. In 1878 the firm-name became White & Deming, and in 1887 the present proprietor [Deming] (who is a native of Newington, Conn.) assumed sole control.

White was also a president of the Victor Sewing Machine Company, which was in business from 1864 to 1883. In 1895, Orrin E. Stoddard purchased the house from the heirs of Henry White. Stoddard was a partner with George Thomas Meech (they had served in the Civil War together) in a grocery business, Meech & Stoddard. According to the Encyclopedia of Connecticut Biography (c. 1917), “Besides dealing in grain, the establishment has long conducted a milling business and does both wholesale and retail trades throughout the New England territory and in other sections.” In 1927, the house was acquired by the Masons and is now home to St. John’s Lodge No. 2. The Masons added a large addition to the rear of the house.

Francis H. Holmes House (1908)

The Francis H. Holmes House is a residence of eclectic design (primarily Jacobethan, with Craftsman, Shingle and Classical elements) at 349 Rocky Hill Avenue in New Britain. Built in 1906-1908, the house was designed by architect Walter P. Crabtree for Francis H. Holmes, superintendent of the Holmes & Dennis Brick Company. The brick yard, of which Holmes’s father, John W. Holmes was a partner, was located nearby in Berlin, just a few blocks south of the house. The two men were also involved in the creation of the Central Connecticut Brick Company. Fittingly, for the home of a brick manufacturer, the Holmes House features a variety of types of brick. The house once had a porte cochere on the north side. (more…)