Houses

Elijah Lewis House (1790)

The Elijah Lewis House was built around 1780 or 1790 by Farmington‘s master builder, Judah Woodruff. Lewis was a farmer and served as a quartermaster in the Revolutionary War. Both he and his son, Elijah Lewis, Jr., were abolitionists and the house was a station on the Underground Railroad (it is on the Connecticut Freedom Trail). In 1977, to improve the flow of traffic on Farmington Avenue, the house was moved back from the road and rotated 90 degrees, with a new address on Mountain Spring Road. The house, which is currently for sale, was also occupied by the artist, Robert B. Brandegee, who left paintings on some of the interior door panels.

Elkanah Cobb House (1769)

The Elkanah Cobb House, on Water Street in Stonington Borough, is one of the oldest in town. Built in 1760s, the Cobb House is a one-and-a-half story structure with a gambrel roof and unusual 9 over 6 sash windows. Cobb was the owner of the house at the time when Stonington was bombarded by British ships on August 19, 1814 during the War of 1812. According to The Homes of our Ancestors in Stonington, Conn., by Grace Denison Wheeler (1903), the house “stood in the thick of the fight near the [American] battery, and so has many scars received during the bombardment.” Benson J. Lossing visited Stonington in 1860 and mentions the house in his Pictorial Field-Book of the War of 1812 (1869).

Frank Sanford House (1884)

For Halloween, we present a classic Victorian Stick Style house, the 1884 Frank Sanford House, on Lovely Street in Unionville. The Stick Style is viewed as a transitional style between the earlier Gothic and Italianate and the later Queen Anne styles. Some see the Stick style as an independent style, others as a part of the broader category of Queen Anne. Sanford, who owned a lumber and hardware business, married Marion Hawley and soon joined his brother-in-law, C. R. Hawley in founding the Sanford and Hawley lumber and building materials company, which is still in operation today.

Daniel Rust House (1731)

The Daniel Rust House, on Main Street in Coventry, was built in 1731. The house is now a Bead and Breakfast. According to its website, the house, “was established in 1800 by the Rose family as a place to rest and refresh yourself before undertaking the remainder of your journey.”

Elisha Covell House (1856)

Elisha Covell built an Italianate-style house on Main Street in Portland around 1854-1856. He had come to Portland to work for Col. Joseph Blague, marrying Blague’s daughter Mary a few years after her father’s death. Covell then built his house on part of the Blague estate.

Deming-Young House (1784)

In 1784, Thomas Deming built a farmhouse on land in Newington (then still a part of Wethersfield) that had been in the Deming family since 1671. Thomas and his brother, Daniel, who had answered the Lexington Alarm during the revolutionary War, were both shoemakers. Thomas was also a founder and officer of Christ Church (Episcopal), organized in 1797 in what is now Newington. Another brother, Elizur Deming, also attended the church, and its business meetings and services were held in his house until a church building was completed. This may have been the same house built by Thomas Deming. The property was purchased by Fred Young in 1918 and was later inherited by his son, who died in 1990. In 1998, the Town of Newington purchased the Deming-Young Farm to prevent the house from being torn down and the land subdivided. The Deming-Young Farm Foundation was founded in 2001 to restore the house. The plan for the future is to make it a learning center focused on eighteenth century farm life.

Lubin Burton Rockwood House (1855)

The home of Rev. Lubin Burton Rockwood, on Riverview Road in Rocky Hill, was built in 1855 or just before. Rev. Rockwood was a Presbyterian minister. Born in New Hampshire, he was a graduate of Dartmouth College and Andover and Union theological seminaries. Ordained in New York in 1845, he served as a pastor at Rocky Hill’s Congregational Church from 1850 to 1859. He also became president and librarian of Rocky Hill’s Social Library Association. The Associations books were kept at his house from 1855-1866.