Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Houses

The Julius Deming House (1793)

Julius Deming was a prominent merchant whose house is on North Street in Litchfield. Erected from 1790 to 1793, the Deming house was designed and built by the important builder William Sprats, whose other work includes the house in Farmington called Oldgate, built around the same time as the Deming House. In the later nineteenth century, the house was used by Deming’s daughter Lucretia Deming as a summer home. She planted linden trees in front of the house, which became known as “The Lindens.” The house remained in the Deming family until 1910. There have been many Colonial Revival-style alterations made over the years, including the addition of a mansard roof with flared eaves in 1936. The house is still considered one of Connecticut’s best examples of the Federal style.

Stevens-Frisbie House (1854)

The Stevens-Frisbie House is an Italianate-style home built in 1853-1854 at the intersection of Main Street and New Lane in Cromwell. It was built by John Stevens, who came to Cromwell in the 1830s and, with his brother Elisha, founded the J & E Stevens Company, which manufactured hardware and toys, including mechanical banks. After John Stevens’s death, his widow sold the house to Russel Frisbie in 1892. Frisbie was superintendent of J & E Stevens and had lived in a neighboring house on Main Street since 1873. The house was passed down in the Frisbie family, until it was bequeathed, with all of its Victorian-era furnishings, to the Cromwell Historical Society in 1968. It now serves as the Society’s headquarters and is open to the public for tours as a historic house museum. The most significant alteration to the house has been the turn-of-the-century addition of a Colonial Revival-style front porch. (more…)

John Goodrich House (1760)

John Goodrich was a descendant early Glastonbury settlers. His house, on Main Street in Glastonbury, was built in 1760. After his death, his daughters sold it to a cousin, Israel Goodrich. In 1806, the year he married Harriet Miller, he modernized the interior, reducing the size of the original kitchen fireplace. The home is currently for sale.

Jonathan Trumbull, Jr. House (1769)

Jonathan Trumbull, Jr. was the son of Jonathan Trumbull, Sr., Connecticut’s governor during the Revolutionary War. He was the brother of the artist John Trumbull, who painted notable scenes from the Revolution. Jonathan Jr. served during the war himself as Military Sectary to George Washington, replacing Alexander Hamilton in that position in 1781 and holding it throughout the Yorktown Campaign. After the war, Trumbull served as Governor of Connecticut (1797-1809). Trumbull’s house, on the Green in Lebanon, was originally built around 1769 by his father and was remodeled during the war in the fashionable Georgian style by the master builder Isaac Fitch. George Washington spent the night of March 4, 1781 in the home, which is now owned and operated as a house museum by the Town of Lebanon.

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Edward Augustus Russell House (1842)

Edward Augustus Russell was the brother of the Middletown merchant Samuel Russell. Edward A. Russell served as mayor of Middletown and a state representative. His Greek Revival-style house was built on High Street in Middletown in 1841-1842, next to his brother’s home of 1828. Like the Samuel Russell House, Edward’s house may have been designed by the important architect Ithiel Town. Significant alterations were made when a third floor was added in 1930.

Reverend Stephen Jewett House (1833)

The Reverend Stephen Jewett House, on Wooster Place in New Haven, was originally built in 1833 for the merchant Theron Towner, who then sold it to Rev. Jewett, an Episcopal minister. The house was designed and constructed by the builder James English, who later became a successful manufacturer and politician. After the Civil War, when the Second Empire style became fashionable, the house was updated with a Mansard roof and a new porch.

The Willard House (1905)

Linked to the Cheney family of silk manufacturers in Manchester, the Willard House is considered one of the Cheney Mansions–it was built for John Davenport Cheney. Located on Hartford Road in Manchester, the house was designed by Charles Adams Platt (himself a member of the Cheney family) and was constructed in 1905. It is currently utilized as the Alison Gill Lodge of the Shelter for Women.