The Jacob Robbins House, at 244 Old Main Street in Rocky Hill, has the appearance of a Greek Revival-style home, but the earliest parts of the colonial structure date to around 1770. The facade is dominated by a large Greek Portico, that was only added in about 1920. This may be the home of the Jacob Robbins who is said to have married a niece of Noah Webster.
Frederic S. Newcomb was a dry goods merchant in New London. In 1896-1897 he erected a Shingle-style house at 31 Vauxhall Street, designed by G.W. Dietrict of New York. The house has pink granite on the ground floor, which was brought by barge from Maine. Since 1953, the house has been used as a convalescent hospital called Beechwood Manor.
An example of a colonial house with significant later alterations is the Benjamin Webb House, at 388 Old Main Street in Rocky Hill. The house was built before 1750, perhaps in 1720.
The house at 66 Marina Park Circle in Bridgeport is a Shingle-style cottage built in 1892 for Charles B. Read. It was acquired by the University of Bridgeport in 1947 and served as Linden Hall, a women’s dormitory. The above picture shows the side of the house. Charles Barnum Read (1858-1912) was the son of David M. Read and Helen Augusta Barnum, the daughter of P.T. Barnum‘s half-brother, Philo Fairchild Barnum. According to Men of Mark in Connecticut, Volume 4 (1908):
Mr. Read has from his earliest years been closely identified with the social and civic life of Bridgeport, having resided there his entire life. He attended the public schools, and graduated from the high school in 1877, going from there into the mercantile house of his father where he occupied a position in the financial department and became thoroughly acquainted with the details of the business. In 1884 The D. M. Read Company was founded, and he became associated with his father, David M. Read, and his brother, David Farnum Read, in that corporation. […] He is a lover of horses, an automobilst, and greatly enjoys different forms of sport, but perhaps finds his greatest relaxation in golf and squash. He is a member of the vestry of St. John’s Episcopal Church, and is always interested in any movement which may arise for furthering the interests of Bridgeport in social or municipal affairs.
Charles B. Read died on July 4, 1912 at his country home in Greenfield Hill in Fairfield. The water supply to his house was pumped in by a gas engine, 100 feet away. There was a break in the gas pipe and the gardener, John Ruhl, went to investigate. When he did not return, his wife went to find him and shrieked when she found his body. They were both overcome by the gas, as was Read, who suffocated while trying to bring the two bodies out himself.
A descendent of James Riley, who settled in Wethersfield in 1645, Captain David Riley built the house at 3 Riverview Road, just off Old Main Street in Rocky Hill, in 1710. Capt. Riley was a ship captain and so many of his sons and grandsons, who were also mariners, built houses near his that the intersection was once known as Riley’s Corner. In the later nineteenth century, the house was owned by Dr. Rufus Griswold, a physician. Dr. Griswold had earlier been a journalist as well. An editor of the Brooklyn Morning Journal and the New York Empire City, according to one source, “he became a prominent contributor to American medical journals and one of the leading members of the medical profession in Connecticut.” He was also the guiding spirit of the Rocky Hill Lyceum, which sponsored debates and lectures and whose members met at his home. The house has recently been restored.
The house at 460 Old Main Street in Rocky Hill was built in about 1760 for Captain Charles Bulkeley, a merchant. The Greek Revival doorway probably dates to around 1840. The house was later owned by the Goodrich family. At some point, Frank Lovejoy, a shoemaker, came from New York to live with the Goodrich family.
Arthur G. Pomeroy was a wealthy tobacco leaf grower (described as “one of the pioneers in the [tobacco] trade”) from Suffield. He built this elaborate Queen Anne-High Victorian Gothic house at 490 Ann Uccello Street in Hartford sometime around 1882-1890. The house was rehabilitated for offices in the 1980s by the Taino Housing and Development Corporation.
You must be logged in to post a comment.