Houses

Rev. Samuel Seabury House (1792)

On Greene’s Alley in New London is the home of Reverend Samuel Seabury, which was built around 1792. Rev. Seabury was an Episcopal minister and a loyalist during the Revolutionary War, who was selected at a 1783 meeting in the Glebe House in Woodbury to become the first American Episcopal Bishop. Rev. Seabury also lived in an earlier house, built in 1743 (unless it’s the same house?). After his death, in 1796, he was succeeded as rector of St James Church in New London by his son, Rev. Charles Seabury.

The Acors Barns House (1837)

Acors Barns was a New London whaling agent. He was also president of the National Bank of Commerce of New London. His 1837 Greek Revival house is on Federal Street.

The Jared Shailer House (1838)

Jared Shailer built a Greek Revival-style house on Bridge Road, in the Tylerville section of Haddam, in 1838, the year after he married his cousin, Florilla Shailer. Several other Shailer cousins lived nearby. The side hall house has a side wing addition–a common method of adding more space to a front-gabled Greek Revival home.

Robert Pratt Homestead (1716)

The Robert Pratt House, on Route 154 in Centerbrook consists of a main Georgian-style center-chimney house with a smaller wing on the west side. It is possible that the wing was built first, by Robert Pratt, Sr. around 1716. The main part of the house was built around the time Nathan Pratt sold the house to Rev. Stephen Holmes in 1758. Rev. Holmes was the second pastor of the Second Ecclessiastical Society of Saybrook, located in Potapoug, which is now the village of Centerbrook in the town of Essex. As explained in the History of Middlesex County (1884), the Reverend, who died in 1773, “practiced medicine in addition to preaching the gospel.”

Samuel Lay House (1754)

Built in 1754 by Samuel Lay, the son of Robert Lay, Jr., the house at 17 North Main Street in Essex was altered the nineteenth century to conform to the popularity of the Greek Revival style. In 1924, the house was purchased and again altered by E.E. Dickinson, Jr.

Mortimer Mather House (1870)

A few doors down from the home of Dr. Ezra Mather, on Main Street in Essex, is a house he had built for his son, Mortimer Mather. The 1870 house (or more likely earlier) is a late example of the Greek Revival style.

The Loren Humiston House (1854)

The Loren Humiston House, on Main Street in Cheshire, is a Greek Revival style home, with an elaborate doorway, built in 1854 for a prosperous farmer. Today, the house is used as offices by an insurance company.