Strong-Porter House (1730)

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The earliest (eastern) section of the Strong-Porter House, on South Street in Coventry, was built around 1730 by Aaron Strong. Strong’s niece, Elizabeth Strong, married Deacon Richard Hale, who came from Newburyport Mass. to Coventry. In 1758, the Strongs sold the house to the Porter family, who expanded the western section and added a rear lean-to by about 1777. In 1930, the house was purchased from the Porters by the lawyer and antiquarian, George Dudley Seymour, who lived there during his restoration of the nearby Nathan Hale Homestead. Seymour mistakenly believed that Nathan Hale’s mother Elizabeth Strong Hale had lived in the house. The building is now a property of the Coventry Historical Society and is open to visitors as a house museum.

Burnham-Dewitt House (1789)

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Built on Broadway in Norwich at the same time (1789) as the neighboring Perkins House, the Burnham-Dewitt house has a very similar appearance. It was built for the nephew of Hezekiah Perkins, Zebulon Perkins Burnham, who was also a sea captain. Burnham was lost at sea in 1810 and the house was later owned by the sea captain Jacob Dewitt. In 1812, Lydia Huntley (later Mrs. Sigourney) and Nancy Maria Hyde used the house as a girl’s school.