Squires-Stanton House (1800)

Built as a Federal-style residence around 1800 by Phineas Squires, the house at 322 Main Street in Durham was later transformed (circa 1870) with alterations in the Italianate style. These include projecting eves with brackets, a painted string course connecting the pedimented lintels over the first story windows, and a hip-roofed portico. In 1817, the house was acquired by James Rose, a farmer who died in 1839. It was then sold to Abner Newton, Jr. who sold it in 1840 to Enos Rogers, a wealthy merchant of North Madison and a founder of the Merriam Manufacturing Company. His daughter Dorliska married her first cousin, Simeon S. Scranton. The house passed to the couple upon Rogers death. As described in a biography of their son, Charles Loveland Scranton, in Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (1901):

Simeon Sereno Scranton engaged in the business of book publishing at Hartford, Conn., in which subsequently he associated with him his son, Charles L. The firm of S. S. Scranton & Co. did an extensive business as book publishers. Among the works that issued from their press were: J. T. Headley’s History of the Civil War, Richardson’s “Field, Dungeon, and Escape,” Smith’s Bible Dictionary, Life and Epistles of Saint Paul, James Fawcett’s Commentary on the Bible, besides many others equally well known. The elder Mr. Scranton, finally selling his interest in the business, retired and spent his last days in Durham, Conn., where he died in 1892, at the age of sixty-nine years. His wife, whose maiden name was Dorliska Rogers, was born in Madison, Conn., and was a daughter of Enos Rogers. She was the mother of thirteen children, of whom ten grew to maturity.

Charles L. Scranton sold the house to John Southmayd in 1902. It remained in the Southmayd family until 1936, when it passed to the Francis family. (more…)

Ithamar Parsons House (1734)

Ithamar Parsons House

The house at 57 Middlefield Road in Durham was built in 1733-1734 by Ithamar Parsons (1707-1786), shortly after his marriage to Sarah Curtis. Parsons carved the date 1734 upside down on the northwest cornerstone of the house’s brownstone foundation. The house passed to his son, Aaron Parsons (1758-1812), who carved “A.P. 1800” near his father’s inscription on the cornerstone. Aaron willed the south half of the house to his widow, Lucy Hawley Parsons, and the north half to his eldest son Curtis. Lucy and Curtis sold their portions to Marcus Parsons, Aaron’s third eldest son. who was a shoemaker. Marcus married Orpha Robinson in 1812. The house was acquired by Thomas William Lyman in 1853. Thomas W. Lyman was the grandson of Thomas Lyman, IV, who built a large Georgian-style house nearby. The house was sold out of the Lyman family in 1889.

Thomas Lyman House (1778)

Thomas Lyman House

The house at 105 Middlefield Road in Durham was built circa 1774-1778 for Thomas Lyman IV (1746-1832). A native of Durham, Thomas Lyman spent time in the south, where his family claimed a grant of land, before returning to Connecticut. He served as quartermaster of the First Connecticut Regiment in the Revolutionary War and as a delegate to the State Constitutional Convention in 1818. Lyman is said to have visited Thomas Jefferson for a week at Monticello and to have have entertained Lafayette at the house in Durham on several occasions. Lyman married Rachel Seward in 1771. The house was built on land that Lyman inherited from his brother Stephen, who died in 1775. It is a hipped-roof structure, which was uncommon for colonial Connecticut. Perhaps Lyman was influenced by his time in the South. The house remained in the Lyman family for many years. It was recently donated to the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation, which has put the house up for sale, with the proceeds to be used to launch a new Revolving Fund for preservation projects around the state. (more…)

William A. Parmalee House (1840)

William A. Parmalee House

One of Durham‘s best examples of the Greek Revival style is the house at 313 Main Street (which was 138 Main Street before the numbers were changed a few years ago). The house was built around 1840 on land acquired the year before by Phineas Parmalee, a shoemaker, whose own house and shop were across the street. He sold the house for $1200 to his son, William A. Parmalee, in 1842. William A. Parmalee, a manufacturer of shoes like his father, had married Mary J. Camp in 1840. He also served as Town Clerk and as a representative to the General Assembly.

Sabbath Day House, Durham (1780)

Sabbath Day House

In the colonial period, Connecticut residents were required by law to attend all-day church services on Sunday. Meeting Houses were unheated and a mid-day break allowed people to eat and warm up before the afternoon services. For those who lived too far away to return home during this break time, towns sometimes built small “Sabbath Day Houses” where they could take shelter. Several Sabbath Day Houses were once located on Durham Green, but were taken down as the attendance requirement ended at the start of the nineteenth century. One surviving structure, built around 1780, was moved to Indian Lane in Durham and converted into a residence. Facing destruction in 1966, it was moved back to the Green and restored by the Durham Historical Society.

A description of Durham’s Sabbath Day Houses is related in William Chauncey Fowler’s History of Durham (1866) as follows:

These houses were from twenty to twenty-five feet in length, and from ten to twelve feet in breadth, and one story high with a chimney in the middle dividing the whole space into two rooms with a partition between them, for the accommodation of two families, who united in building the house. The furniture consisted of a few chairs, a table, plates and dishes; some iron utensil, it may be, for warming food which had been cooked. Besides the Bible, there was sometimes a book on experimental religion, like Baxter’s Saints’ Rest, or Allein’s Alarm. On the morning of the Sabbath the mother of the family with provident care, put up her store of comforts for the dinner, substantial or slight fare as most convenient, a bottle of cider almost of course. The family then set off from their home in a large two horse sleigh, or on saddles and pillions. They stopped at the Sabbathday house, kindled a blazing fire, and then went forth “to shiver in the cold during the morning services.” At noon they hurried back to their warm room. After they had taken their meal and by turns drank from the pewter mug, thanks were returned. Then the sermon came under review, from the notes taken by the father of the family, or a chapter was read from the Bible, or a paragraph from some favorite author, the service concluding with prayer or singing. After again visiting the sanctuary, the family would return to the Sabbath-day house if the cold was severe, before they sought their home. The fire was then extinguished, the door was locked, and the house remained undisturbed during the week.

In time the custom of repairing to these houses changed; the houses themselves became dilapidated or furnished a refuge for the poor. They were better suited to those times when so much was thought of private family religion, than they would be to ours, when religion has become more of a public and social concern. The last Sabbath-day house which I remember, stood on the land owned by the first minister. It was occupied by John King, a Hessian deserter from the British army. It was owned by one of the Nortons. The present writer can recollect as many as half a dozon of these houses. They grew up out of the type of religion which existed at that time. It was a family religion, rather than a public one.