Walter Brewster House (1787)

Located on Library Road off Canterbury Green is the small center-chimney home built by Walter Brewster around 1787. Brewster was a clock-maker and a silversmith and goldsmith. In 1792, Brewster joined with other Connecticut artisans (including much more well-to-do ones, like the manufacturer Christopher Leffingwell of Norwich) in a huge petition drive protesting the state’s taxation system and the ruling gentry. In 1797, Walter Brewster sold his house to his brother, Abel Brewster, also a goldsmith, silversmith and pewterer who, according to A Modern History of New London County (1922),

“had a goldsmith shop on the meeting house green in Canterbury, Connecticut, where his brother, Walter Brewster, also lived. In the “Courier,” published at Norwich, April 3, 1799, J. Huntington & Co. advertise among other things, “Table and Tea Spoons made to any pattern by Abel Brewster of Canterbury, may be had of Huntington & Co., also orders for any kind of Goldsmith and Jewellry Articles left with them will be executed by said Brewster with neatness and dispatch. Norwich Port, March 26. 1799”

In November, 1804, he seems to have set up his shop in Norwich Landing, and advertises that he is now selling for the most reasonable prices in cash or approved notes, a variety of warranted middling and low prized watches, chains, seals, keys, warranted silver table, tea, salt and mustard spoons; sugar tongs, silver thimbles, a variety of fashionable gold ear rings, knobs, lockets, bosom pins, and finger rings; warranted gold necklaces of superior quality; ladies’ and gentlemen’s morocco pocket books; pen knives, most kinds of watch materials and a variety of other articles in his line. “N.B. All kinds of Watches repaired with the utmost punctuality and dispatch. Cash and the highest price given for old gold and silver.” On February 27, 1805, he advertises, “A SUCCESSOR WANTED—ABEL BREWSTER. Finding the care necessary in his business too great for the present state of his health, offers to dispose of his whole stock in Business, consisting of Watches, Furnishing Materials, Jewelry, Silver and Fancy Work, Tools, &c, &c. He thinks the call highly worthy the attention of some Gentleman of the profession. Also for sale, the house, shop and garden formerly occupied by him and beautifully situated on Canterbury Green.” In “The Courier” of April 3, 1805, he announces that “Having disposed of his business to Messrs Judah Hart and Alvin Wilcox, he requests all persons indebted to him (whose debts have become due) to make immediate payment without further notice.” He died in 1807, and the inventory of his estate included a small house and lot “in Swallowall” (now Franklin Square) in Norwich.

The day of the old-time gold or silversmith had nearly passed; much of the work was now done by machinery, and while spoons still continued to be occasionally made, yet seldom has a good specimen been found in this section of later-day work.”

Lathrop Manor (1745)

The seventeenth century home of Dr. John Olmstead, Norwich’s first physician, was located at the current site of Lathrop Manor, on Washington Street in Norwichtown. He later sold his house, built around 1660, to Samuel Lathrop (1650-1732). It was then inherited by Samuel’s son, Thomas Lathrop (1681-1774). It is possible the original house burned in 1745 and was rebuilt. In any case, after Samuel’s death, it was owned by Dr. Daniel Lathrop, who joined with Dr. Joshua Lathrop (whose home is across the street) to establish Connecticut’s first apothecary, at that time the only one located between New York and Boston. Benedict Arnold lived in the house as a young man while he was apprenticed to the Lathrops, who were merchants in addition to running an apothecary. Dr. Daniel Lathrop married Jerusha, the daughter of Governor Joseph Talcott. The property was famed for its gardens and Lydia Huntly Sigourney, who later became a popular poet and author, lived in the house as a child while her father was working as a gardener for the Lathrops. Sigourney recorded her memories of the house and garden in her books, Sketch of Connecticut, Forty Years Since (1824) and Letters of Life (1866). After Mrs. Jerusha Lathrop died in 1806, the house was owned by another Daniel Lathrop, the son of Dr. Joshua Lathrop. An important resident in the later nineteenth century was Daniel Coit Gilman, an influential educator who taught at Yale and became the first president of Johns Hopkins University. A Lathrop descendant, Gilman delivered A Historical Discourse at Norwich’s Bicentennial Celebration in 1859. Today the house is a bed & breakfast called Lathop Manor.

The Elnathan Camp House (1758)

One of Durham’s most impressive eighteenth century buildings is the Elnathan Camp House, located at the northeast corner of the intersection of Main Street and Maiden Lane. Early in the eighteenth century, Abraham Jelit built a house on the property which was later owned by John Camp, who probaly built the current house around 1758 to replace the smaller Jelit House. Camp gave the house to his son, Phineas, in 1785 and Phineas Camp immediately sold the house to his brother, Elnathan. The house was used as a residence and shop by Elnathan Camp and later owners, with a tavern on the premises in the later nineteenth century. The house continues as a residence and offices today.

Marlborough Congregational Church Parsonage (1750)

The parsonage of the Congregational Church of Marlborough is a vernacular 1 3/4 story house, built around 1750 and later given a Greek Revival style frieze and cornice over the front door. The house was originally the parsonage of the Methodist Church, but when the church building was converted to become a library and town hall in the 1920s, the parsonage was sold to the Congregational Church.

The Baker-Weir House (1750/1860)

The Baker-Weir House in Windham Center began as a colonial farmhouse, built in 1750. Two Italianate-style wings were added in 1860. The house was owned by the Baker family. In 1851, Anna Bartlett Dwight married Lt. Charles Taintor Baker and, after 1870, they resided in New York and spent their summers at the Baker House in Windham. The couple’s youngest daughter, Anna Dwight Baker, married the artist J. Alden Weir in 1883. The previous year, Weir had acquired a farm in Branchville, which became his primary residence. At the time of Anna Weir’s death in 1892, he had three young daughters to raise, so the next year, Weir married Anna’s sister, Ella Baker. Through his two marriages, Weir inherited the Baker farm and thereafter maintained three homes, one in New York, and his two country studios in Branchville, which is now the Weir Farm National Historic Site, and in Windham, which is still owned by the Weir family. J. Alden Weir died in 1919 and is buried in Windham Center Cemetery.

The Dr. Thomas Cornwall House (1810)

In 1807, Dr. Thomas Cornwall built a house at the northwest intersection of South Main Street and Cornwall Avenue in Cheshire. With his medical practice growing, Dr. Cornwall moved this first house to the rear of his lot and built a larger building, to serve as his home and office, on the site in 1810. The central block is the oldest section of the house, with the two wings being added in 1814. A specialist in cancer treatment, Dr. Cornwall constructed the wings to serve as a sanitarium for his patients. Dr. Cornwall’s son Edward, an attorney who served in various town offices and in the state legislature, lived in the house after 1846. It was Edward Cornwall who later added the Victorian-style porches to the building’s two side wings.

George Harrington House (1815)

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When Samuel Lay laid out New Street (now Pratt Street) in Essex, the first home to be built on the street was that of his son-in-law, George Harrington. Around that time, the Essex ropewalk, in which Harrington was involved, located south of the street, but was soon moved to a new location just to the north. The Harrington House, built around 1815, was later owned by sea captain John Rockwell, who was in the navy during the Civil War.