Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Houses

Howard House – Methodist Parsonage (1790)

The house at 89 Tolland Green in Tolland was built c. 1790 by a member of the Howard family. Bishop Francis Asbury, who played a major part in the spread of Methodism in the United States, held a conference of Methodist ministers in the house in August 1793. As related in the Life and Labors of Francis Asbury, Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America (1896), by George G. Smith:

Methodism had come to New England to stay, and the Conference was to meet at Tolland. With a blister behind his ear for a sore throat and a poultice on his foot for rheumatism, he consented to rest a little while, but only for two days. He was again attacked by the rheumatism, and was not able to walk from his horse to the house, and had to be lifted down from the saddle and up again.

As Bishop Asbury noted in his own Journal:

Our conference sat at Tolland. Lame as I was, I went through the business; and notwithstanding I was tired out with labour, heat, and pain, and company, I must also preach; so I submitted; and endeavoured to apply 2 Tim. ii, 24-26.

As explained in the Souvenir History of the New England Southern Conference in Three Volumes (1897)

The preaching service was held in the partially finished chapel. Bishop Asbury was present and preached on II. Timothy ii: 24-26, “The servant of the Lord must not strive,” etc. The text was peculiarly apt for the people and the time, for Dr. Williams of the Congregational Church had recently bitterly attacked the Methodist Church usages and doctrines. Dr. Williams afterwards acknowledged his mistake, and invited Methodists to hold prayer meetings at his home.

In 1794 Bishop Asbury again stayed at the house, which later became a Methodist parsonage for a time.

Samuel E. Merwin House (1858)

The house at 186 Woodruff Avenue in Watertown was built 1858 and was the home of Samuel E. Merwin. This is probably the same Samuel E. Merwin (1831-1907), later a resident of New Haven, who served as Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut from 1889 to 1893.

Abraham Cruttenden House (1735)

The book Madison: Three Hundred Years By the Sea (1976), p. 39, dates the Abraham Cruttenden (or Crittenden) House to 1639. Abraham Cruttenden was one of the original settlers of what would become Madison and he arrived in New Haven with other settlers of Guilford in 1639. A more recent dating of the house, which is a Colonial cape at 123 Boston Post Road in Madison, is 1735. In 1967, Yale architect Albert Riese erected a mid-century modern box at the rear of the house as a wing for his elderly mother. Riese’s daughter and her husband extensively renovated the house in 2012.

207 Bank Street, New London (1901)

The commercial building at 207 Bank Street in New London was built c. 1901 by Charles Klinck next to his home. The Klinck House itself was torn down in the 1920s and replaced by the Klinck Building. Charles H. Klinck operated a successful meat market, located in the Bulkeley House, that serviced steamships.

Daniel Norton House (1814)

Part of the house at 130 South Main Street in Suffield was built by Daniel Norton (1751-1814), c. 1812-1814. After his death, the residence was later completed by his son, D. W. Norton. Daniel Washington Norton (1801-1874) was a prominent businessman and a town office holder. In 1870 he headed the committee that planned the celebrations for the Bicentennial of Suffield

William S. Nevins House (1840)

William S. Nevins built the Greek Revival house at 21 Main Street in Farmington around 1840. He sold the house soon after, in 1843, to Samuel Burgess, who sold it six years later to the sisters Clarissa K. Jones (d. 1881) and Belinda Jones (d. 1883). The house had a number of owners through the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Abraham Brainerd House (1861)

As related in The Genealogy of the Brainerd Family in the United States, with Numerous Sketches of Individuals (1857), by David Dudley Field:

Abraham Brainerd [of Higganum] married Almira M. Clark, of Southwick, Massachusetts, June 5, 1840, and has two children:

Francis Gertrude Brainerd, born Aug. 15, 1841.
William ” ” July 29, 1849.
They lived on the paternal homestead a few years, and then moved to Madison. They keep a house of entertainment on the shore of the Sound, near the East Wharf, where they furnish sea food for those who call upon them, or board with them. Among the latter are numbers, especially in the warm season of the year, seeking health from sea air and sea food.

The family returned to Higganum (in Haddam) where Abraham Brainerd built the vernacular Italianate house at 34 Maple Avenue on land he had acquired from Orrin Freeman in 1861. As related in The Genealogy of the Brainerd-Brainard Family in America, Vol. II (1908), by Lucy Abigail Brainard:

He was commissioner on ferries from 1869 to ’74, inclusive. He was grand juror in 1862; justice of the peace from 1846 to ’51, inclusive; selectman in 1847; notary public and postmaster at Higganum for three years, and commissioner of the Superior Court from 1869 to ’75, inclusive. He was a representative from Haddam in 1846, and nominated delegate to the Whig State Convention in 1848. He lived in the Brainerd district, Higganum, Conn. Mr. Abraham Brainerd d. Aug. 7, 1884, ae. 68 yrs. Mrs. Almira M. (Clark) Brainerd d. Aug. 5, 1890.