Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Houses

William H. Beebe House (1880)

The house at 540 Main Street in Portland was built c. 1880. According to Doris Sherrow, the house’s first owner, William H. Beebe, was a quarryman, although shortly before his death he purchased newspaper printing machinery. He may be the same William H. Beebe listed in the Middletown and Portland Directory for 1886-7 as a “molder bds.” In the early twentieth century, the property was used as a gas station. Frederick Haines ran the garage in the nineteen teens and twenties and George Bot in the 1930s. On the south front lawn, two concrete tracks, with the space between now filled in, are remnants of the garage’s old grease pit.

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Lane-Gillette House (1846)

The house at 222 Barbourtown Road in Canton, long owned by the Gillette family, was built c. 1846-1851 by Henry P. Lane. The house appears to have been much expanded over the years.

Benjamin Lyman House (1825)

A rare example in Manchester of a Federal style house is located at 612 Middle Turnpike East. The house was erected c. 1825, probably by Benjamin Lyman, who had begun acquiring land in the area before that year. Much altered over the years, today it is home to Green Lodge, an assisted living facility.

Grover L’Hommedieu House (1799)

Grover L’Hommedieu (1741-1841) was one of the patriot militiamen who became refugees from Long Island to Connecticut after the Battle of Long Island in 1776 during the Revolutionary War. He settled in Norwich and in 1797 leased land from Samuel Lay in Essex. There he erected the town’s first ropewalk. Around that time he also erected the house at 32 Main Street in Essex. It was later occupied by his son Ezra L’Hommedieu (1772-1860), a ship-carver who invented the double-podded center screw auger, which he patented in 1809. Grover’s daughter Sarah (Sally) married Ebenezer Hayden II, the town’s leading merchant. In 1802, Grover L’Hommedieu sold the ropewalk to his partner, Ebenezer’s son, Jared. In 1815, the L’Hommedieu House was purchased by another member of the Hayden family, John G. Hayden.

99 Great Hill Road, Guilford (1820)

By 1852, the house at 99 Great Hill Road (as well as the land across the street) in North Guilford was owned by Victor Fowler (1799-1868). It is uncertain when the house was built, but it may date to c. 1820. A large two-story porch was added to the house in the 1940s.

2734 Long Hill Road, Guilford (1835)

The house at 2734 Long Hill Road in North Guilford is thought to have been built c. 1835 and may have been used as a store. It has previously been dated c. 1825.

Thomas S. Greenman House (1842)

Three brothers, George, Clark and Thomas Greenman, founded the George Greenman & Co. Shipyard in Mystic (now the location of Mystic Seaport). Each erected a house along Greenmanville Avenue, the last being the home of Thomas S. Greenman. Erected in 1842, the house has a cast-iron fence, put up about 1866, and a porch, added in the 1870s. Thomas Greenman’s granddaughter, Mary Stillman Harkness, donated the house to Mystic Seaport in 1945. An exhibit was opened in the house in 1952, while the kitchen and upstairs rooms are used as offices.

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