Tapping Reeve House (1773) and Litchfield Law School (1782)

Tapping Reeve, a lawyer, and his wife, Sally Burr Reeve, settled in Litchfield in 1773. The next year, Reeve began teaching law to his wife’s brother, Aaron Burr, who was living with the couple. Starting with this single student, Reeve developed a curriculum which would be taught to almost 1,000 students over the following decades, as he expanded from his home to a one-room school house he had built next-door, in 1784. Because this was a time before the creation of formal law schools at the major Universities, this Litchfield Law School is regarded as being the oldest law school in the country. The school’s students included such notables as John C. Calhoun and Oliver Wolcott, Jr. In 1798, Reeve was joined by James Gould and the two operated the school together until 1820. Gould would continue to run it until 1833. The law school building was later moved from the site, but was eventually returned and restored in 1976. Today both the house and school are open as a museum run by the Litchfield Historical Society. (more…)

The Mark Twain House (1874)

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Built in 1874 on Farmington Avenue in Hartford’s Nook Farm neighborhood for Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) and designed in the High Victorian Gothic style by Edward Tuckerman Potter (who was known for his churches, including the Church of the Good Shepherd). Mark Twain lived here from 1874-1891 with his wife, Olivia Langdon Clemens, and their three daughters: Suzy, Clara and Jean. His wife was the one primarily involved in planning with the architect–apparently all Sam Clemens asked for was a red brick house! He also had a servant’s wing and a carriage house and employed about seven or so servants, including his butler, George Griffin, maid Katy Leary and coachman Patrick McAleer. It was while living here that Mark Twain wrote such classic works as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. Bad financial decisions, including his investment in the Paige Compositor typesetting machine, led to near bankruptcy, and forced the Clemens family to move to Europe in 1891. After a round-the-world lecture tour, Clemens was able to pay off his debt, but as his eldest daughter Suzy had died in the Hartford house during a return visit there in 1896, the family never returned there and he sold the house in 1904. Over the years, the house was used as a school, a library and an apartment building. It was restored in the 1960s and 1970s and is open as part of The Mark Twain House and Museum.

Sarah Whitman Hooker House (1720)

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Built in the early eighteenth century on New Britain Avenue in West Hartford for Timothy Seymour. The house was gradually expanded throughout the century from an original one room “with chamber above” into a saltbox. In the first decade of the nineteenth century, a later owner removed the saltbox addition and remodeled in the Federal style, enlarging the house to its current size. The home is named for Sarah Whitman Hooker. Her husband, Thomas Hart Hooker, a descendant of Thomas Hooker, bought the house in 1773. When he died after going to fight at Boston in 1775, she lodged two Tory prisoners of war in the home during the winter of 1775-1776. The house has been restored and is currently a open as a museum.

Gay Manse (1742)

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Built in 1742 on North Main Street in Suffield for the Reverend Ebenezer Gay, who was ordained as minister of the Congregational church that same year. The “Gay Manse” is notable as one of the earliest gambrel-roofed houses in New England. It is also one of the oldest houses in Suffield and features a classic Connecticut River Valley doorway. When Gay died in 1796, he was succeeded by his son. Rev. Ebenezer Gay, Jr. served until his death in 1837 and also ran a school in one room of the manse, while housing the town library in another. Today the house is owned by Suffield Academy.

Epaphras Bissell House (1816)

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Built for Epaphras Bissell on Old Main Street in South Windsor, this was the third brick Federal style house to be constructed in the East Windsor Hill neighborhood for a member of the Bissell family. It was modeled on the two earlier homes built by Epaphras’ brother, Aaron Bissell, and by Aaron’s son-in-law, Eli Haskell. The house was later owned by Elihu Wolcott, a book merchant who added the piazza on the south elevation, and by Erastus Ellsworth, a nephew of Oliver Ellsworth and brother-in-law of Epaphras Bissell and Elihu Wolcott. Ellsworth was the main patron of the Theological Institute in East Windsor hill, which later moved to Hartford. His son, Erastus Wolcott Ellsworth, was a poet who wrote such works as “What Is the Use” and “The Mayflower.”

Today is Connecticut Open House Day!