Ira Eaton House (1810)

The house at 12 Maple Street in Kent was built c.1810 for Ira Eaton (born 1786) and his wife Lucinda (born 1790). Ira was a farmer who represented Kent in the state legislature in 1833. The house was enlarged around the time of the marriage of Ira and Lucinda’s son, Luther. His life is described in the History of Kent, Connecticut (1897), by Francis Atwater:

Luther Eaton, a son of Ira Eaton, was born in Kent January 4, 1826. He was educated in the public schools of the town and J. C. Howard academy in Warren, Conn. On March 26, 1850, he married Miss Sophronia E. Tobey, of Poughkeepsie, N. Y., his present wife. From his youth up Mr. Eaton has been a farmer and still has something to do in overseeing his farms, and for thirty years he has been a packer and dealer in Connecticut leaf tobacco. In politics has always been a strong Democrat, both for sound money and protection, what has been fitly called a Samuel J. Randall Democrat. Mr. Eaton has always been one of the public men of Kent, and has held nearly every town office, besides representing the town in the Legislature in 1865, and with others had very much to do in 1881 in forming the Kent Water company, which succeeded in furnishing the village with an abundance of good water. Mr. Eaton has been president of the Water company since 1882, and there has been no public enterprise started in the town of Kent but what Mr. Eaton has done his full share in both paying out money and in seeing to it that it was done as it should be. The family of Eatons came to Kent about 1757 from the town of Tolland, Tolland county, Connecticut.

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Capt. Jeremiah Goodrich House (1740)

589 Main Street in Portland was the site of the c. 1720 house of Thomas White. It seems to have been replaced c. 1740 by a house constructed for Jeremiah Goodrich (1709-1793), who was part of Portland’s shipbuilding industry and active in town affairs. The house was originally a single-chimney residence that was later enlarged to have two chimneys. It was later owned by his son Hezekiah Goodrich (1745-1817). Hezekiah was a Jeffersonian Republican who was one of five men removed from office as Justice of the Peace in by the Federalist state government due to his attendance at an August 29, 1804 general meeting of Republican delegates from 97 Connecticut towns held in New Haven. At the time Connecticut was still operating under the 1662 Royal Charter, but the delegates favored the drafting of a constitution, declaring it “the unanimous opinion of this meeting that the people of this state are at present without a constitution of civil government.” Federalists were outraged at what they considered a radical and dangerous position, and they succeeded in revoking Goodrich’s commission, as described in Historical Notes on the Constitutions of Connecticut, 1639-1818 (1901) by J. Hammond Trumbull:

The result of the October election in an increased federal majority showed that the popular mind was not yet prepared for a radical change. When the General Assembly met, the leaders of the dominant party, elated by success, resolved to administer a signal rebuke to the revolutionary designs of the minority. Five justices of the peace, who had attended the republican meeting at New Haven and taken part in its proceedings, were cited to appear before the Assembly, “to shew reasons why their commissions should not be revoked,” since “it is improper,” as the preamble of the resolution sets forth, “to entrust the administration of the laws to persons who hold and teach that the government is an usurpation.”

Connecticut would finally hold a constitutional convention in 1818.

Henry Gildersleeve House (1853)

Henry Gildersleeve, Sr. (1817-1894) was a member of the prominent Gildersleeve shipbuilding family of Portland. In 1853 he erected his house, which has an Italianate-style cupola, at 625 Main Street. In 1932 the house was sold to Harold Randall, who is most likely the one who laid out the adjoining small street called Randall Place. As related in the History of Middlesex County, Connecticut, with Biographical Sketches of its Prominent Men (1884):

The eldest son of Sylvester and Rebecca Gildersleeve inherits from his father those rare traits of character that have distinguished the Gildersleeves, not only as a family of successful shipbuilders and merchants, but as a family who are noted for their public spirit and large hearted benevolence.

Henry was born in Portland, in that part of the town now known as Gildersleeve, on the 7th of April 1817. He enjoyed the limited educational advantages afforded by the district school, but acquired sufficient knowledge of the rudimental branches to fit him for the occupation he had chosen. At the age of 17, he commenced in his father’s yard to learn the business of shipbuilding, and soon acquired a thorough knowledge of the details of the business. At the age of 25, he was taken into partnership with his father, under the firm name of S. Gildersleeve & Son. In December 1872, he associated himself with the house of Bentley, Gildersleeve & Co., shipping and commission merchants, on South Street, New York. He retained his connection with the Portland shipbuilding firm and at the end of ten years he retired from the New York firm, resigning in favor of his son, Sylvester, who still continues the business in connection with his brother, Oliver, under the firm name of S. Gildersleeve & Co. Henry Gildersleeve, since retiring from his New York business, has devoted his whole time and attention to the shipbuilding and other interests with which he is connected in his native town.

Mr. Gildersleeve has been identified with many public enterprises outside of his shipbuilding interests. He was for a number of years a director in the Hartford Steamboat Company, and is now president of the Portland and Middletown Ferry Company, and a director in the Middlesex Quarry Company, also the First National Bank of Portland; and trustee of the Freestone Savings Bank. He has been for many years an active member and a liberal supporter of the Trinity Episcopal Church at Portland, was a large contributor to the fund for the erection of the building, and a member of the building committee.


In 1860, he represented the democratic party in the State Legislature, and sustained every measure for the vigorous prosecution of the war.

Capt. Thomas Jefferson Sawyer House (1840)

Thomas Jefferson Sawyer House

Thomas Jefferson Sawyer was a sea captain who was born on Mason’s Island in Stonington in 1807 and moved to the coastal village of Noank in Groton circa 1840, where he built the Greek Revival-style house that still stands at 72 Main Street. He was an organizer and leading member of the Fort Hill Baptist Church in Groton. Among his children was a son who, like his father, was also named after the third president.