Chrysler House (1825)

Built circa 1825-1830, the house at 15 Chaplin Street in Chaplin is known as the Chrysler House for the family that owned it for much of he twentieth century. The least ornate of the three brick houses in the Chaplin Historic District (the others are the Whitter House and the Goodell House), all built around the same time), the Chrysler House has been much altered over the years. A front porch, which covered part of the original fan light over the door, was later removed, but the fan light remains filled in. The interior has been altered, with the original central stairs replaced by a large parlor. A notable resident of the house was Sidney V. Chrysler, a puppeteer whose puppet theater was housed in an ell of the house. The theater is now part of the collections of the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at UCONN.

Chilson-Bailey House (1750)

The house at 19 High Street in Middlefield is thought to have been built c. 1750 by Asaph Chilson adjacent to his parents’ house on land they then owned. Asaph acquired ownership of the property, including both houses, in 1756 (his parents had moved to another house the previous year). He sold the property in 1759 to John Lyman and Abraham Camp, whose half-shares were soon acquired by Samuel Russell. In 1770, Russell sold the property (now having only one dwelling house) to Richard Miller. It remained in Miller’s family until it was acquired by Oliver Bailey in 1813. Bailey was married to Anna Wetmore, whose mother had been Richard Miller’s first wife. The surrounding neighborhood would become known as Baileyville after Oliver and Anner’s grandson, Alfred M. Bailey, who contributed to the area’s industrial development, building a dam at Lake Beseck c. 1850.

Norman Case House (1830)

The house at 172 Cherry Brook Road in Canton Center was built in 1830 by Norman Case, who had a woodworking shop on the banks of Cherry Brook where he made wagons and coffins. Once, people attending services at the Congregational Church next door heard a loud pounding, unusual for a Sunday morning. It was Norman Case, making a coffin for his young married daughter, who had died suddenly. Case’s shop became the Canton Center Store in 1875 and was moved closer to the road in 1886. Case’s house was later owned by Walter S. Case (1859-1941), who arrived in Canton in 1893 and ran the store for nearly fifty years, being succeeded by his sons, Gordon and Byron. He made alterations to the house, removing the central chimney and rearranging the interior rooms. Walter S. Case also served as postmaster from 1898 to 1940, followed by his son Gordon Case, who made an addition to the store for the post office.

James Leavenworth House (1842)

The house at 28 Church Street in Roxbury was built c. 1842 by James Leavenworth (b. 1815). It was later owned by Charles Beardsley (1807-1888), builder of the Roxbury Congregational Church, and continued in his family until it was acquired by the church for use as a parsonage. It was the church’s second parsonage, used after the house at 16 Church Street, built in 1883, which is now a private residence. (more…)