In 1887, H. S. Patterson of Torrington erected the two-family residence at 1092 Bantam Road, in the Bantam section of Litchfield, for George Clemons. The latter, who owned the house for many years, but only lived in it himself for two years, later served as Litchfield selectman. The house originally had a front porch, with decorative detailing, that extended across the entire front facade.
The house at 1062 Bantam Road, in Bantam section of Litchfield, was built by Joel Clemons c. 1755-1756, shortly after he acquired the land from his father John. Joel married Sarah Pettibone in 1757. Aaron Bradley and his son-in-law, Henry Wadsworth, proprietors of the Bradley Tavern, owned the house in the 1820s. James K. Wallace and his wife, Abigail Kilbourn Wallace, bought the property in 1826. Their son, Dr. James K. Wallace, practiced medicine in the house. The Wallace family raised the house from being a one-and-a-half story cape to a full two stories. The house’s ell was once the parsonage of the Baptist Church and was moved from its original site on Cathole Road. A different door has been installed since 1987, when a photograph of the house was taken for the Historical and Architectural Resources Survey of Litchfield, Connecticut: The Bantam/Milton Area (1987). In recent years the house was home to Gilyard’s Outfitters, Ltd.
The Queen Anne house at 1104 Bantam Road in the Bantam section of Litchfield was built by John Coe, who acquired the lot in 1903. The house remained in the related Coe, Morey and Woodford families until 1982.
The great showman P. T. Barnum was born in 1810 in a house, built in 1768, at 55 Greenwood Avenue in Bethel. He lived in town until 1834-35. Starting in 1819, his father, Philo Barnum (1780-1825), ran a tavern in Bethel. The current Greek Revival style of the house is an alteration of the original saltbox home, as repaired after a fire in 1835 (or in the 1840s). The front portion of the house was destroyed, leaving only the kitchen and woodhouse. P. T. Barnum’s mother, Irena Taylor Barnum (1764-1868), who continued to operate the tavern after her husband’s death until 1835, lived in the house until her own death in 1868. [another source says that the original birthplace house was replaced by the current house on the site in 1843 and that Irena Barnum, who had moved away before that time, later repurchased the family’s old property).
According to the sign on the house at 62 East Main Street in Mystic, the residence was built in 1892 for Allen Avery [possibly Allen Avery (1838-1915)?] by John Heath. It also lists a later owner, Henry S. Miner, “ships carpenter.”
The house at 381 Wolcott Hill Road in Wethersfield is believed to have been built by Maj. Samuel Wolcott about 1750. The Wolcott Coat of Arms are painted on a panel over the mantel in the house’s north parlor. A later resident was Elisha Wolcott (1755-1827), a hat maker. He married Mary Welles in 1775 and soon after served in the Revolutionary War in Capt. Hanmer’s company As related in Vol. I of Henry R. Stiles’ History of Ancient Wethersfield (1904):
Elisha Wolcott, gt-gd-son of Samuel Wolcott 2nd, after some service in the army at New York in the summer and autumn of 1776, is said, at Gen. Washington’s suggestion, to have returned to his home in Wethersfield for the purpose of making hats for the soldiers — and one of the “hat blocks” used by him in this manufacture, at the old Samuel Wolcott (present Bourne) house, is still in possession of his descendants.—Letter of Mrs. J. W. Griswold.
The house at 1169 Long Hill Road in Guilford was built in 1838 for James Stone Loper (1802-1888). It features a large Greek Revival doorway and has a large addition, built c. 1840.
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