Houses

Martha A. Parsons House (1782)

The Martha A. Parsons House, in Enfield, was built in 1792 by John Meacham on property that was initially intended for use by ministers (parsons). In 1800, the house was purchased by John Ingraham, a retired Saybrook sea captain, who placed George Washington Memorial wallpaper in the front hall. In 1906, Juliaette Parsons, the widow of Ingraham’s great-grandson, moved in with her three daughters. One of them, Martha A. Parsons, entered the world of business, eventually becoming secretary of the Landers, Frary & Clark of New Britain in 1912. After a fifty year career, she retired to Enfield to live with her sisters. She died in 1962 and the home was bequeathed to the Enfield Historical Society, which operates it as the Martha A. Parsons Museum.

Captain John Clark House (1802)

Built around 1802 as an addition or replacement for an earlier home on the site, the house of Captain John Clark, on South Canterbury Road in Canterbury is, like the Prudence Crandall House, a prime example of the “Canterbury Style,” a regional development of the Georgian and Federal styles. Both of these houses are believed to have been designed by the same builder: Thomas Gibbs of Plainfield.

Prudence Crandall House (1805)

What is today known as the Prudence Crandall House, in Canterbury, was originally built around 1805 for Luther Paine by the architect, Thomas Gibbs. The house, also known as the Elisha Payne House, was built in the “Canterbury type” of the Federal style, so named because there are several similar houses in town. Distinctive features of the Canterbury Style include having a gable atop a hipped roof with twin chimneys and a complex two-and-a-half story entrance composition with a triangular pediment above a Gothic-influenced Palladian window above an elaborate doorway. In 1831, the house became a school for girls, run by Prudence Crandall of Rhode Island, who had been invited by Canterbury residents to head the school. When Crandall accepted Sarah Harris, the daughter of a free African American farmer, to the school, many townspeople objected and began to remove their daughters from the school. In response, Crandall decided attract students from free black communities in New England to her school, who could be trained as teachers. In 1833, the state passed a “Black Law” making it illegal for the school to operate. Crandall was arrested, spent a night in jail, and faced various charges until her case was dismissed in 1834. A dissatisfied mob then attacked the school, which was forced to close. Crandall soon married and left Connecticut. The “Black Law” was repealed in 1838 and years later, in 1886 the Connecticut legislature honored Crandall with an annual pension. She was designated the official state heroine of Connecticut in 1995 and her former house and school is now the Prudence Crandall Museum, operated by the state.

Levi Lincoln Felt House (1879)

The Levi Lincoln Felt House, on Jefferson Street in Hartford, was built in 1879 and is transitional in architectural style between the Gothic Revival and Queen Anne. The chimney has a High Victorian Gothic element in its polychromatic terra-cotta tiles. Felt was born in New York City in 1849 and later settled in Hartford, working after 1864 for the Travelers Insurance Company and becoming its cashier/comptroller. Felt was also interested in his family’s genealogy, conceiving and doing preliminary work for The Felt Genealogy (1893) and joining the Connecticut Historical Society.

The DeWitt C. Perry House (1871)

When the DeWitt C. Perry House was built on Russ Street in Hartford, it was the only house on a now densely-packed block. Perry was an employee of the nearby Billings & Spencer Company, which specialized in drop-forging. The house retains its original front porch, but the enclosed side porch is a later addition. The house now contains law offices.

Edwin Bugbee House (1875)

The French Second Empire-style Edwin Bugbee House, on Prospect Street in Willimantic, was built around 1875. Bugbee was involved in developing Willimantic’s lumber and coal distributing trade and was president of the Willimantic Electric Light Company. His son, Edwin Francis Bugbee, was one of Willimantic’s leading attorneys.

William J. Asher House (1899)

The rate of development for residential use on Willimantic’s Prospect Hill was increasing in the 1890s and many fine Victorian homes were being constructed by town’s prosperous upper middle class. In 1899, the industrialist William J. Asher, originally from Springfield, Massachusetts, began the construction of his home at 321 Prospect Street, on land he had purchased from the Windham Manufacturing Company. His Queen Anne house, located across the street from the recently built high school, was completed in 1900. Asher, who owned the Maverick Steam Laundry and also manufactured washing machines, was a prominent member of Willimantic’s early Jewish community. The apex of his home’s front gable contains inlaid scallop shells, a symbol of good fortune. The stone used to construct the front porch came from a textile mill which had been destroyed in a fire in the 1890s. At the rear of the house, Asher had a custom-built garage for his new automobile with an underground fuel tank. Asher left Willimantic in 1914 and sold the house to Archibald W. Turner, a diamond and jeweler dealer, who also acquired Willimantic’s leading livery stable.