Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Guilford

Collins-Spencer House (1727)

The John Collins-Stephen Spencer House, at 77 Fair Street in Guilford, is a Colonial saltbox house. In 1670, John Collins built an earlier house on the site. The current house was built c. 1727 around the the surviving chimney of the 1670 structure. Stephen Spencer, a blacksmith, had acquired the property in 1726. Deacon Peter Stevens of Saybrook bought it in 1804. Ten years later he sold it to the town of Guilford, which used it as an almshouse. In 1826, when East Guilford became the town of Madison, town property was divided and the almshouse, although located within Guilford, was owned by Madison. This situation lasted until 1832, when Madison sold the house to William H. Stevens.

Nathaniel Bishop House (1755)

In 1720, Nathaniel Bishop, a Guilford farmer and sea captain, purchased land and around 1755 began building a house, which was still uncompleted at the time of his death in 1769. His grandsons inherited the house and the materials to finish building it. In later years the house was used as offices. In 1975, it was moved from behind the Guilford Savings Bank to its current address at 147 Boston Street.

Elisha Chapman Bishop House (1874)

The house at 122 Broad Street in Guilford was built in 1874 for Elisha Chapman Bishop (1824-1903). A native of Guilford, Bishop had become wealthy in the 1860s oil boom in Titusville, Pennsylvania. According to Vol. II of A Modern History of New Haven and Eastern New Haven County (1918), Bishop

was born April 10, 1824, in Guilford, remaining upon the home farm until he reached the age of twenty years. He then began learning the machinist’s trade, which he afterward followed in Guilford on his own account. In 1861 he began operations in the oil fields at Titusville, Pennsylvania, where he remained for ten years, meeting with substantial success. He returned to Guilford in 1870 and then took up the occupation of general farming. In 1874 he built one of the finest homes in Guilford and equipped it in a most modern manner. In politics he was originally a republican but afterward became a prohibitionist. He was an ardent supporter of the abolition party from the time that he reached his majority in 1845. In 1882 he represented his town in the state legislature and he held various local offices. His religious faith was that of the Congregational church. On the 5th of July, 1846, he married Charlotte G. Fowler and they became the parents of twelve children, six of whom are living: Robert Allen; Edward Fowler; Mary Cornelia, the wife of N. G. White, of Hartford, Connecticut; Eva B., the wife of Edward M. Leete, of Guilford; Ida, the wife of William J. Canfield, of New Haven; and Marilla Canfield, the wife of F. C. Spencer, of Guilford.

Bishop’s house in Guilford, built in the French Second Empire style on the northeast corner of Guilford Green, was designed by the noted architect Henry Austin of New Haven. The house was later inherited by Bishop’s granddaughter, Marilla, who was married to Frederick C. Spencer, president of the Spencer Foundry. After her death in 1962, the First Congregational Church purchased the house for use as a rectory.

Alfred G. Hull House (1849)

The Alfred G. Hull House, at 58-60 Boston Street in Guilford, was built in 1849 with an Italianate flat roof. A French Second Empire mansard roof was added to the house around 1860. According to an obituary in The American Stationer, Vol. XXXV, No. 6, February 8, 1894:

Alfred G. Hull, secretary and treasurer of the American Copying Paper Company, Windsor Locks, Conn., died at the residence of Henry E. Pratt, his son-in-law, at Springfield, Mass., January 31, and was buried at Guilford, Conn., on Saturday last. Mr. Hull had passed through a siege of grip, when he was attacked by pneumonia, which ended his life. Alfred G. Hull was born in Clinton Conn., and was seventy-one years of age, and had spent his life in the lumber business, retiring from active business about ten years ago. Later he became secretary and treasurer of the company of which his son-in-law is president. He was treasurer of the town of Guilford for a number of years, was also justice of the peace for a long term, and for the last twenty-eight years had been a member of the Third Congregational Church of Guilford. He was widely known, and was as widely esteemed and respected.

A lumber dealer and contractor, who built a number of buildings in Guilford, Alfred G. Hull was also vice-president of the Guilford Savings Bank.

David Hull House (1766)

The saltbox house at 76 Fair Street in Guilford was built in 1766 by David Hull on land he bought that year from Nathaniel Johnson. In 1791, Hull sold the house to Seth Bishop, who owned it until he built his own house next door in 1796. The Hull House has passed through many owners over the years and at one time had a nineteenth-century porch, since removed.

Russell Crampton House (1844)

The Greek Revival house at 44 Boston Street in Guilford was built in 1844 and has been much altered over the years. It was the home of Russell Crampton, a dealer in coal.

Guilford Trust Company (1912)

The Guilford Trust Company building, at 1 Boston Street across from Guilford Green, was built in 1912. The Guilford Trust Company and the Guilford Savings Bank shared the building until 1951, when the bank moved out. The trust company was acquired by a New Haven bank in 1957 and the building underwent alterations, including the removal of the front door. The structure is now a commercial building.