Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Houses

Timothy Pitkin House (1788)

Rev. Timothy Pitkin, the son of Governor William Pitkin, was the minister of Farmington’s Congregational Church from 1752 to 1785. During the Revolutionary War, he preached a sermon attended by George Washington. In 1803, he sold his 1788 house on Colton Street in Farmington to his son, Timothy Pitkin, Jr. The younger Pitkin, born in 1766, was a Yale graduate who then studied law with Oliver Wolcott. He went on to become a lawyer in Farmington and entered politics as a Federalist, serving in the Connecticut State Legislature and the US Congress. Pitkin, who died in 1847, was also an important early historian of the United States, writing A Statistical View of the Commerce of the United States of America (1816) and the A Political and Civil History of the United States from 1763 to the Close of Washington’s Administration (1828). The house was sold in 1841 to Dr. Edwin Carrington, who died in 1852 and for whom the adjacent Carrington Lane is named. The house combines elements of the Georgian and Federal styles.

Francis Cowles House (1840)

The Francis Cowles House, built circa 1840 (another source estimates circa 1844 and another circa 1835) on Main Street in Farmington, represents a transition in style from the Greek Revival (the colonnaded front porch) to the Italianate (the low pitched roof with bracketed cornice). A plaque in the building indicates it was built circa 1835 and was acquired for the school by the trustees of Miss Porter’s estate in 1901. (A now defunct website had mistakenly indicated that the house was purchased by Sarah Porter for her school in 1889). The house now serves as a dorm called “Brick“. The house is located on the site of the house where Sarah Porter’s father, the Rev. Noah Porter, was born, in the house of his father, Robert Porter. (Note: post edited 5/28/15 to reflect corrected info).

The George A. Bolles House (1875)

Built around 1875, the George A. Bolles House is located on Asylum Avenue in Hartford and is an excellent example of the elaborate and creative homes built in the Asylum Hill neighborhood in the nineteenth century. The house originally had a different front porch, as well as a side porch, which has since been removed.

The Dr. Lee J. Whittles House (1850)

A Cardinal House is a bed and breakfast located on Main Street in Glastonbury. Their website describes it as an 1850 house in the Georgian Revival style. That would make it a very early example of this style of building.

Edit (5/27/08): I have more recently learned that this house was extensively remodeled in 1897 and again in 1936, when it was the home of Dr. Lee J. Whittles. He studied Glastonbury’s old houses for decades and was part of the committee responsible for the Welles-Shipman-Ward House from being razed.

Fanny S. O’Connor House (1899)

Very unusually for a Georgian Revival style house, the Fanny S. O’Connor House, on Gillett Street in Hartford, was constructed of brownstone. The house, built in 1899, also features a Jacobethan Revival-style gable.

Dr. Joshua Belden House (1722)

The Dr. Joshua Belden House, constructed in 1722, is located on Main Street in Newington. A center-chimney colonial house, it was updated in the Greek Revival style, with columns and pediment on the facade. Records show that Dr. Belden had two “bound” children, or indentured servants, in his household.

The Frank Cheney, Jr. House (1900)

One of the mansions of the Cheney family of silk manufacturers in Manchester is the house constructed around 1900 for Frank Cheney, Jr. on Hartford Road. A Colonial Revival structure, designed by Charles Adams Platt, it includes such features as a hipped roof, a prominent palladian window and portico with Ionic columns. Purchased in 1958 by the nearby South United Methodist Church, it has been used for various purposes and currently houses the offices of the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce and New Hope Manor.