Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Houses

Henry Stillman House (1872)

The Henry Stillman House is an 1872 Gothic Revival style home on Main Street in Wethersfield.

Built in 1787 for Henry Deming on Main Street in Wethersfield and later owned by the Standish family, the Deming-Standish House was given to the town of Wethersfield in 1928. It is very similar to the 1783 brick house built for Samuel Woodhouse, Jr., on nearby River Road. In 1800, James Francis and his cousin, Simeon, were contracted to do the woodworking of the front rooms and the windows, the facade thus being updated in the Federal style. Within a few years, the neighboring Hurlbut and Shepard Houses would be constructed in the Federal style. The house was leased to the Wethersfield Historical Society in 1983 and over the years has been rented to different proprietors as a restaurant, first as The Standish House, and more recently as The Village Tavern. It is currently between tenants.

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General Mansfield House (1810)

Built in 1810 on Main Street in Middletown for the merchant Samuel Mather, the Federal-style General Mansfield House was later home to Mather’s daughter Louisa and her husband, General Joseph K. F. Mansfield. At the start of the Civil War, Mansfield was in charge of the defense of Washington, D.C. On September 17, 1862, he was killed at the Battle of Antietam (or Sharpsburg) in Maryland, haven just taken command two days before of the XII Corps of the Army of the Potomac. A monument and a mortuary cannon are dedicated to him on the battlefield of Antietam. There is also a monument in Middletown’s Indian Hill Cemetery, where he is buried. His house was later occupied by his descendants. Slated for demolition in the 1950s, it was saved by the Middlesex County Historical Society and now serves as the Society’s headquarters and museum.

Samuel Woodhouse, Jr. House (1783)

A brick gambrel-roofed house, on River Road in Wethersfield, was constructed for Samuel Woodhouse, Jr. in 1783. He was a sailor and shipbuilder and the son of Samuel Woodhouse , Sr. and Thankful Blinn, the granddaughter of the famous cabinetmaker Peter Blinn. Woodhouse also served in the Revolutionary War.

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Captain Francis Bulkeley House (1750)

The home of Capt. Francis Bulkeley, on Main Street in Wethersfield has a similar asymmetrical arrangement to that of the Silas Deane House in Wethersfield and the Moses Brace–Uriah Cadwell House in West Hartford. The date of 1750 may be too early, as those houses date to the 1760s.

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Moses Brace–Uriah Cadwell House (1766)

The Moses Brace–Uriah Cadwell House, on Flagg Road in West Hartford, is a colonial house with an asymmetrical arrangement of windows on the facade that is similar to that of the Silas Deane House in Wethersfield, which was built around the same time. I assume that Moses Brace was the first owner. Uriah Cadwell owned the house in the nineteenth century.

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Enoch Kelsey House (1799)

Built in 1799 in Newington by the farmer and tinsmith Enoch Kelsey and his son, David Kelsey. The Kelsey House originally stood on Kelsey Street, but was moved to Main Street in 1979 by the Newington Historical Society & Trust, and it currently serves as a colonial house museum.