The Deacon Chauncey Wells House, at 491 Wells Road in Wethersfield, was built in 1770. According to a traditional story, the east half of the house was built first, then the second half later on. These were initially two separate residences, possibly built for two brothers. The house was sold out of this branch of the Wells family in 1882.
Henry Laurens Kellogg of Newington gained wealth running a satinet factory, which made uniform fabric during the Civil War. Admiring the architecture he saw while visiting Italy, Kellogg returned home and built his house in 1875 in the style of an Italian villa. The factory, which later burned down, stood between his house and Piper Brook. Once hidden by a row of poplar trees in front, the Kellogg House has a commanding presence on Willard Avenue where Stoddard Avenue ends. The house is now subdivided into condominium units.
The Elisha Stillman House, at 99 Wells Road in Wethersfield, was built around 1775. The property had been owned by Lt. John Stillman, who sold it to his brother, Elisha Stillman, in 1773. Their father, Deacon John Stillman, was married to Mary Wolcott, whose father Samuel Wolcott had owned the land on which the Joseph Webb (1752) and Silas Deane (c. 1770) Houses were later built on Main Street. In 1765, either John or Elisha Stillman sold Deane the land where he later built his home. The Stillman House later became part of the Silas W. Robbins farm property in the nineteenth century.
Now owned by the Town of Guilford, the Jedediah Lathrop House was built in 1822 on Park Street. Maj. Jedediah Lathrop had torn down a preexisting house on the same site to build his impressive Federal-style home. Lathrop, who married Mary Caldwell in 1793, was a prominent citizen, master of St. Alban’s Masonic Lodge and part of the reception committee for General Lafayette, who visited Guilford in 1824. Lathrop also cultivated grapes, like those displayed at the 1838 fair of the Horticultural Society of New Haven. The house was later owned by Bernard C. Steiner, author of the History of Guilford and Madison, Connecticut (1897). A barn on the property was attached to the house and a new wing added around 1960.
Casa Bianca is an Italianate house in New Haven, built around 1848. It most likely originally stood on Orange Street, but was moved to Bradley Street around 1882. In the early twentieth century, it was the home of George Dudley Seymour, a lawyer and preservationist. Born in Bristol, Seymour specialized in patent law in New Haven and was also dedicated to municipal improvements in the city. He urged the adoption of city planning (in line with the ideas of the City Beautiful Movement) and served as secretary of the city plan commission and the committee planning the construction of a new public library. Seymour also led the campaign to erect a statue of Nathan Hale on Yale’s Old Campus and he later restored the Nathan Hale Homestead in Coventry.
The Italianate-style Nehemiah Sperry House was built in 1857 on Orange Street in New Haven. It was the home Nehemiah D. Sperry, a businessman and Republican politician. He was a builder and contractor, who joined his brother-in-law, Willis Smith, in the prominent New Haven firm of Smith & Sperry. Much of the Orange Street neighborhood was developed by the company, which also constructed the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument in the city’s East Rock Park. Sperry served as New Haven’s postmaster, Secretary of State of Connecticut and as a U.S. Representative in Congress from 1895 to 1911. A lighthouse in New Haven Harbor, which no longer exists, was named in Sperry’s honor, as he had contributed much to the harbor area’s development. Sperry’s house, which has a design likely attributable to the office of Henry Austin, was originally much lighter in color and resembled the similar Edward Rowland House on Wooster Square.
Around 1832, Randolph Please built his second home in Middletown, across College Street from his first home. This newer building has a classic Greek Revival temple-front. In 1916, it was remodeled to become a church. Today, it is Middletown’s First Church of Christ, Scientist.