Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Houses

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)

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.

Elias Austin House (1743)

The Elias Austin House, also known as the Moses Austin House, was built around 1745 and stands on the west side of Main Street in Durham. Elias Austin purchased the lot in 1743 and the property passed to his wife and sons when he died in 1766. One of his sons was Moses Austin, who was born in the house in 1761. Moses Austin later left Durham and reached Texas in the 1820, where the government of Spanish-controlled Mexico granted him land to settle 300 Anglo-American families. Austin died in 1821, but his son, Stephen F. Austin, fulfilled his father’s dream, becoming known as the “Father of Texas.” The Austin House in Durham was sold out of the family in 1783 and has since had many different owners. The building served as Durham’s post office from 1909 to 1935. A front porch supported by pillars once wrapped around three sides of the house, but was removed sometime in the last two decades.

The Lines-Curtin House (1900)

On the corner of West Main and Cedar Streets in New Britain is a large Shingle style house, built around 1900 by Charles W. Lines, who ran a grist mill. Lines later moved to Newington and the house was purchased by John M. Curtin, partner in a furniture dealer and undertakers company. The house was the Curtin Funeral Home until the late 1960s and today is used as office space.

An advertisement in the Official Souvenir and Program of the Dedication of the Soldiers’ monument, New Britain, Conn., September 19, 1900.

The William G. Peck House (1867)

This is the thousandth post at Historical Buildings of Connecticut! To celebrate, you may have noticed the new poll at the top of the sidebar. Please vote!!! Today’s building is the William G. Peck House, which is on North Street in Litchfield and was built in 1867. William Guy Peck was born in Litchfield in 1820, graduated from West Point (pdf, p. 81) in 1844 and served in the corps of Topographical Engineers. He later taught mathematics at West Point and later at Columbia College, where he also taught engineering and led the Department of Mechanics in the School of Mines. He married a daughter of the mathematician, Charles Davies. According to an 1892 obituary:

He was the author of numerous works, including a mathematical dictionary, and text-books in arithmetic, algebra, geometry and trigonometry, differential and integral calculus, determinants, mechanics, physics, and astronomy. His works are characterized by lucidity, conciseness and directness. His teaching was distinguished by the same excellent qualities. His full and exact knowledge of the subjects which he taught, his clear exposition and illustration of them, his enthusiasm, his solicitude for the advancement and welfare of the students, the humor with which he occasionally illumined his lectures, made his room an attractive one, and his courses sought after and enjoyed. It is within the personal knowledge of very many, perhaps the most, of those by whom this notice will be read, that no professor in the college was more beloved than he.

Tallmadge Store/ J.C. Wadsworth House (1784)

Benjamin Tallmadge, spymaster for George Washington during the Revolutionary War, moved to Litchfield after the war and became a successful merchant. His store, built around 1784, originally stood next to his home on Litchfield’s North Street. It was moved across the street around 1811 and incorporated into the house of J.C. Wadsworth, which still stands today on the east side of North Street.

David Smith Post Office (1852)

Rev. David Smith built a small post office building around 1852 which he operated next to his home on Maple Avenue in Durham. When he died in 1854, he was succeeded by his daughter, Catherine. When she married Henry L. Ellsworth in 1857, the building was moved to its current location on Main Street, across from the town green. In the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the old post office housed a succession of stores, eventually becoming a residence. The building has been altered, with an addition on the east end, facing away from the street.