Houses - Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Rev. Samuel Lockwood House (1749)

The house at 349 Jonathan Trumbull Highway (Route 6) in Andover was built in 1749 to be the residence (Parsonage) of Rev. Samuel Lockwood (1721-1791), the first minister of Andover’s First Congregational Church. The house originally stood just to the east of its current location. It was moved in 1927 to make way for the construction of the Andover Public Library. At that time the house was most likely turned as well, so that its gable-end now faces the road.

Rev. Samuel Lockwood is described in Vol. I of William B. Sprague’s Annals of the American Pulpit, reprinted in Descendants of Robert Lockwood: Colonial and Revolutionary History of the Lockwood Family in America, from A.D. 1630 (1889):

Samuel Lockwood was descended from a highly respectable family, and was born at Norwalk, Conn., November 30th, 1721. He was the son of James and Lydia (Smith) Lockwood. He was graduated at Yale College in 1745. He pursued his theological studies under the direction of his brother, the Rev. James Lockwood, who had at that time been settled for several years as pastor of the church in Wethersfield.

An ecclesiastical society in Andover, Conn., having been formed in 1747 from the three towns of Coventry, Lebanon and Hebron, Mr. Lockwood, shortly after he was licensed to preach, was employed by that society as a candidate for settlement. He commenced his labors there about the beginning of 1748, when the parish voted “to hire him to preach as a probationer,” they passed this additional, and, as it would seem at this day, superfluous vote, that ” Mr. Lockwood may change with any orthodox minister to preach to us when he shall see cause.” Having after the manner of those days undergone a long probation among them as a candidate, he was ordained as pastor February 25th, 1749, O. S., the church having been constituted on the preceding day. The ordination sermon was preached by his brother the minister of Wethersfield. He continued in the faithful discharge of the duties of his office upwards of forty years.

[. . .] In 1774 he was appointed to preach the annual sermon before the Legislature of the State, and though there is nothing in it to indicate remarkable powers of mind, it is, nevertheless, a judicious, patriotic and well-adapted discourse. It is the only acknowledged production of his that was ever printed.

In 1791 an enfeebled state of health obliged him to desist from his labors, and by medical advice he visited the mineral springs at New Lebanon in the hope that the waters might prove beneficial to him. But in this both himself and his friends were disappointed; for after he had been there a short time his disease assumed an aggravated form, and very soon the afflicting tidings came back to his people that he was no longer among the living. He died on Saturday the 18th of June, in the 70th year of his age, and the 43d of his ministry.

Walter Goodell House (1835)

The house at 44 Chaplin Street in Chaplin was built between 1828, when Isaac Goodell purchased the land, and 1835, when he sold the property, now including a house and store, to his brother Walter Goodell. The house is a good example of the transition of the Federal to the Greek Revival style of architecture. The residence is now the home and studio of art quilter Catherine Whall Smith.

Sumner-Carpenter House (1806)

The Sumner-Carpenter House, located at 333 Old Colony Road in Eastford, is a well-preserved example of a large rural Federal period house. It was built c. 1806 for John Newton Sumner (1776-1831), a farmer and land-owner who was active in local civic affairs. In 1815 he was one of the incorporators of the Sprague Manufacturing Company. The builder of the house was Vini Goodell, who also built the Benjamin Bosworth House in Eastford. The year before his death, Sumner sold the house and associated farm to Asa Bosworth. David P. Carpenter purchased the house and farm in 1882 and it remained in his family for three generations, until 1969. The Carpenters maintained a large herd of Devon cattle for their dairy farm. The house has a side ell, built along with or not long after the main block, and a rear wing built c. 1900.

Henrietta House (1722)

The Byles Homestead is an early eighteenth-century house at 125 Ashford Center Road in Ashford. It stands on part of what had been the 226 acre farm bought by Josias (or Josiah) Byles in 1726 (or 1718). Josias Byles (c.1682-1752) was a Boston shopkeeper who is buried in that city’s Granary Burying Ground. His half-brother, Rev. Mather Byles (1706-1788) was a famously witty clergyman, author and poet who was a loyalist during the Revolutionary War. Josias’ son, Ebenezer Byles (1723-1805), settled on his father’s property in Ashford in 1743. The Byles Homestead passed to Ebenezer’s son Josias, then to his grandson Elisha and then to his great-grandson Andrew H. Byles. As related in Genealogical and Biographical Record of New London County, Connecticut (1905):

Deacon Andrew Huntington Byles was born Oct. 3, 1820, on the old home farm in Ashford, which is located on the turnpike between Ashford Centre and Warrenville. He was brought up to a very practical knowledge of farm work, which, however, in his younger days did not appeal to him, as he had a great desire to enter the medical profession. This boon was denied him as his assistance was needed by his father at home. His education was acquired in the common schools, and for several years he taught school in Ashford and surrounding towns. The old farm continued to be his home, and he assisted very materially in its management until after the death of his father, when it became his by inheritance. He resided there until 1888, when he removed to Willimantic and made that city his home until his death May 17, 1894.

Today, 69 acres of the Byles family’s old property is the Josias Byles Sanctuary, given to Joshua’s Trust in 1988. The Byles House is now a bed and breakfast called Henrietta House. The sign for Henrietta House gives a date of circa 1722, around which time the oldest sections of the residence were built.

Jabez Benton House (1730)

The house at 101 State Street in Guilford was built in 1730 for Jabez Benton (1680-1756) and his wife Hannah Stone (1702-1773). They were married in 1726 and had seven children. In 1853 George Walter Hinckley, who would become a teacher and a minister, was born in the house. In 1889 he founded a farm school for homeless children in Fairfield, Maine called Good Will Farm. By the time Hinckley died in 1950, the school had a campus of 3,000 acres with 45 buildings and served more than 3,000 underprivileged and troubled youth.

Sheldon B. Smith House (1840)

The Greek Revival house at 20 Church Street in Roxbury was built circa 1840. It was the home of Sheldon B. Smith, who raised livestock and held official positions in the town.

Gen. Ephraim Hinman House (1784)

The house at 1 Church Street in Roxbury was built in 1784 by Gen. Ephraim Hinman (1753-1829), a Revolutionary War veteran, merchant and prominent leader in the Connecticut Militia. Gen. Hinman also served in the state legislature and spearheaded the incorporation of the Town of Roxbury in 1796. He was born in Southbury and, as described in William Cothren’s History of Ancient Woodbury (1854):

Gen. Hinman removed to Roxbury about the year 1784, and built a house in the center of the village, which for a country residence at that period, was regarded as belonging to the first class. For about thirty years he was engaged in mercantile pursuits. During this time he became an extensive landholder, having in his possession at one time, about one thousand acres. He was not a practical farmer. but his love of real estate induced him to retain it, until the interest he paid, connected with losses he sustained, greatly embarrassed him in his declining years, and thus operated disastrously on the pecuniary interests of his son, who became involved in attempting to relieve his father.