Today is the Eleventh Anniversary of Historic Buildings of Connecticut! Pictured above is the house at 2 Jackson Avenue in Mystic. Built in 1882, its design was influenced by the popular Eastlake style. It was the home of of Francis Manning, a banker, and his wife Ann.
A sign on the house at 41 Central Avenue in East Hartford reads: “Mary E. Phipps, 1887.” The building now contains apartments.
The house at 35 Moss Street in the Pawcatuck section of Stonington is listed in the Mechanic Street Historic District as the Henry S. Gavitt House. There was a Henry S. Gavitt (1861-1928), who was an iron molder in Stonington and is buried in Maine. Another Henry S. Gavitt lived in New London. The house was built in 1905.
The house at 59 Barbourtown Road in Canton was built in 1800 by Elijah Barber (1748-1820). Elijah’s son, Daniel, raised the house higher and Daniel Hiram, a later owner, added an ell. In the 1830s, when there was a boom in raising silk worms, a silk worm house, or “cocoonery,” was erected on the property. In 1844 a disease struck the mulberry trees in Connecticut that fed the worms and the industry failed. The silk worm house was replaced by a barn, which later became a residence. Roy C. Webster, who had been a “Yankee Peddler” in his youth, bought the Barber House in 1926 and restored it.
The house at 16 Main Street in South Windham was built c. 1840 by Elisha H. Holmes, Sr. (1799-1886). As related in Vol. I of the Commemorative Biographical Record of Tolland and Windham Counties (1903), Holmes
came to Windham in 1818, and followed his trade of cabinetmaker, also engaging in farming. Later he had a grist and plaster mill at South Windham. At one time he engaged largely in dredging operations, both in salt water and the Great Lakes. His death, which occurred Sept. 21, 1886, was regarded as a loss throughout the community. In politics he was a Democrat, and he represented the town of Windham in the State Legislature, also holding local offices. His wife, Lydia, was a daughter of Amos Dennison Allen, a cabinet—maker of Windham, with whom Mr. Holmes learned his trade.
In 1833, Elisha H. Holmes inherited land from his in-laws, the Allen family, which he sold to George Spafford, a partner in Spafford, Phelps and Co., which made paper manufacturing machines. The company failed after the Panic of 1837 and was acquired by Charles Smith and Harvey Winchester. In 1837 and 1838, Holmes sold additional land to the new partners, who were expanding the company. In 1872, Holmes built a house for his son, Elisha H. Holmes, Jr., at 4 Main Street in South Windsor.
The house at 306-308 Naubuc Avenue in Glastonbury was built sometime between 1800 and 1810 by either of two men who owned the property at different points during that time: Samuel Wright, a farmer, or George Sellew, who had a merchant shipping business. The house was later extended by one bay on the north (the left end of the front facade).
Chauncey Spencer was a builder who erected a number of tenement houses in the village of Ivoryton in Essex. In 1856 he acquired the land at 3 Main Street in Ivoryton from Dan Parker, whose daughter Temperance he had married in 1853. He built the house on the property by 1860. After the Temperance died in 1892, Chauncey married her sister, Cornelia. The home remained in the Spencer family until 1963. (more…)
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