Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Houses

Philip Chapin House (1867)

On Church Street in the Pine Meadow section of New Hartford is a very impressive Italianate mansion, built in 1867 by William Bushnell as a wedding gift to his daughter Amelia, who in 1866 had married Philip E. Chapin. Philip’s father, Hermon Chapin, gave the land on which the house was built as a gift to his son. Hermon Chapin also donated land for the construction of St. John’s Episcopal Church, located adjacent to his son’s house. Hermon Chapin was a toolmaker who established the Union Factory in Pine Meadow. Philip Chapin and his brothers later established the Chapin Machine Company in 1870. After Amelia died in 1878, Chapin left New Hartford for Ohio, later remarrying and becoming the general manager of the Cambria Iron Company in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The house in New Hartford was rented to various people and then, between 1887 and 1922, it was owned by Hubert P. Richards, who used it on weekends. After Richards died, his grandsons, Ralph and Howell owned the house and rented it out. Howell Richards eventually bought his brother’s interest in the Chapin House and owned it until his death in 1974. The house was recently on sale.

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The Caleb Stone House (1749)

The Caleb Stone House was built in 1749, at the corner of Broad and River Streets, on the property which had been the homelot of William Leete, one of the original settlers of Guilford. Leete was a leader in Guilford and went on to become governor of the New Haven Colony and then of the Connecticut Colony, which had absorbed New Haven. While he was governor of the staunchly Puritan New Haven Colony in 1661, Leete sheltered Whalley and Goffe, two of the regicides, the judges who had signed the death warrant of Charles I and were being hunted by the Restoration government. A barn behind the Stone House stands over the cellar where the regicides hid for three days. Caleb Stone Jr. and his wife, Rebecca Evarts, bought the property in 1715 and later built his saltbox home, which was lived in by members of the Stone family until 1955.

The Charles Culver House (1832)

Built on Washington Street in New London in 1832, the Charles Culver House was the first of many to be constructed in its neighborhood by John Bishop. In 1804, Culver had owned a ropewalk adjacent to his home. When this business burned in 1834, he sold the property to a group of investors, led by John Bishop and Jonathan Starr, Jr., who opened a residential street, named Starr Street after the C. Starr and Company Soap and Candle Factory.

The Ambrose Whittlesey House (1799)

Ambrose Whittlesey was a sea captain who built his house in 1799 on Main Street in Old Saybrook. The ell of the house is earlier, dating to around 1765. The Whittleseys were civil leaders in Old Saybrook and founded the town library. In 1919, the house was acquired Grace Pratt, last surviving member of Ambrose Whittlesey’s family. In 1977, the house’s current owners bought it to become a home furnishings store, which has since grown into a shopping complex called Saybrook Country Barn.

Some readers of this site may be aware of the Connecticut town history links page I created. Each town has a page with links to relevant websites and online books. I have recently been working on a similar page for Massachusetts. So far, it only has a few towns (mostly ones where I’ve taken pictures of buildings). Some of the towns, like Cambridge, Springfield, Salem, Lexington and Concord have many links. Unsurprisingly, Boston has a massive number of links and a huge collection of online books on many different topics, which I have made easier to navigate with a number of internal links, listed at the top of the page. Please check out both the Massachusetts and Connecticut town link pages!

Whitmore Homestead (1786)

The Federal-style Whitmore Homestead, built around 1786, is at 20 Riverview Road in Rocky Hill. There is a small structure on the property thought to have been used as the town’s first post office. The house was also a stop on the Underground Railroad, with a hidden passage in the upstairs closet used by fugitive slaves.

Edwin Fitch House (1836)

The Fitch House is a Greek Revival home in Mansfield Center, built in 1836, which is now a bed & breakfast. The house was built by the architect and builder, Col. Edwin Fitch, who was hoping to impress his father-in-law, Dr. Jabez Adams and launch his career. Fitch later designed the Second Congregational Church in Coventry. Bankrupt by 1843, Fitch sold half of the house to Edmund Golding, who bought the entire house in 1848. Golding, who died in 1854, and Lewis D. Brown, who bought the house in 1865, were both Mansfield silk manufacturers. In 1906, the house was acquired by Carrie Amidon Havens, who later married Oliver Perry, a descendant of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry. They enlarged the house, adding wings with porches on either side. The property also has two connected English-style historic barns.

Samuel Dix House (1764)

The brick home of Samuel Dix in Wethersfield was built in 1780, or perhaps earlier in 1764, on Wolcott Hill Road near Wells Road. The house, which was also known as the Leonard Dix House, remained in the Dix family into the twentieth century. The interior was later completely altered from the original arrangement.