Barnes-Frost House (1795)

Built in 1795, probably by Pitt Cowles, the house at 1177 Marion Avenue in Southington, known as the Barnes-Frost House, was purchased in 1810 by Philo Barnes, a large landowner. His son, Seth E. Barnes, traveled to the California gold fields in the 1840s. In 1863, during the Civil War, Seth E. Barnes died in Charleston, South Carolina as a prisoner of war. His widow Lucinda, brought up her grandson, Edwin Seth Todd, who became General Manager of Clark Brothers Bolt Company. Levi D. Frost, of the Marion bolt manufacturing company, bought the house in 1883 and it remained in his family until 1916. The house features a repeating diamond and ellipse pattern running above the windows, doors and roof, an example of Federal-style detailing that may have been added later.

Dr. J. Porter House (1754)

This is the start of Southington Week!!! The Dr. J. Porter House is a colonial residence at 391 Belleview Avenue in Southington. It may have been built as early as 1728 and was probably already standing in 1754, when Dr. Joshua Porter brought his new wife home to the house. According to Heman Timlow’s Ecclesiastical and Other Sketches of Southington, Conn. (1875), Dr. Porter

was the third resident physician [in Southington], although some of his descendants dispute that he ever practiced at all. But he came of a medical family, his father and grandfather both belonging to the profession. He probably practiced at first, but, like Dr. Skilton, he gave his attention more to business, and finally became the largest landholder in the town. Mr. Curtiss, in recording his marriage, gives him the title of doctor, so that he had it as early as 1754, the date of his marriage. He lived on the place now occupied by Joseph P. Piatt. It is said that he was the largest slaveholder that ever lived in town. He died February 20, 1803, aged eighty-five.

The same source notes that he was married twice: “Mercy, his wife, died March 14, 1796, in her 76th year, when he married (2) June 12, 1797, Mabel Pardee, as some suppose a sister or cousin of his first wife.” He also had a daughter named Mercy who married Samuel Pardee in 1777. Timlow notes that Pardee “removed to the old homestead of his father-in-law, Dr. Joshua Porter, where Joseph P. Piatt now lives. This place his wife inherited in part, and he appears to have bought the remainder.” There are four barns behind the house on this historic farm property.

Patriot Farm (1788)

Travelers on Route 6 in Bolton pass by a Federal/Greek Revival-style house with a sign identifying it as “Patriot Farm.” Older surveys date the house, at 822 Hopriver Road, to c.1822, but a sign on the house says it was built by Jonathan Colton in 1788 (the sign is on a wing of the house, so perhaps this refers to the wing as an earlier section, with main block dating to the 1820s?). The property is currently for sale.

580-584 Kossuth Street, Bridgeport (1889)

James Spargo was a Bridgeport housing contractor. In 1889 he built row houses at 580-4 Kossuth Street in East Bridgeport which are interesting for their combination of Queen Anne and Richadsonian Romanesque architectural features. One of the original residents of one of these houses was Rev. Henry M. Sherman, who had been rector of Calvary Church in Colchester and Trinity Church in Torrington, the latter from 1876 to 1890.

Luman Andrews House (1745)

The Luman Andrews House at 469 Andrews Street in Southington is one of the earliest in the town, having been constructed in 1745 with a fifth bay being added to the north side in 1795. The house was built by Nathaniel Messenger, who sold it to Dan Bradley in 1779. In 1782, it was acquired by Eunice Judd Root, wife of Jonathan Root, Jr., who she later divorced. In 1806, she deeded the house to her son, Capt. Nathaniel Judd Root upon his marriage to Sarah Dunham. In 1818, Root sold the house to Luman Andrews (1776-1839). In 1825, Andrews and his neighbors, Anson Merriman and Sheldon Moore, discovered an outcrop of blue limestone on the property and confirmed with Professor Benjamin Silliman of Yale that it was the blue limestone needed to make Portland Cement. The farm then became a quarry, with kilns and mills to process the cement. The quarry was active until around the time Bennet Andrews, Luman’s son, died in 1860. Charles Moore, grandson of Sheldon Moore, bought the house in 1873 and his family owned it until 1980.