Built around 1810, on Bridge Road in Haddam, the Shailer-Banning House originally had a gable roof, which was altered to the current hip roof around 1840. At that time, the house was also probably stuccoed. The house was built by David Shailer and later was home to his daughter, Ursula, and her husband, Benjamin Banning, who were married in 1835. Their daughter, Anna U. Minor, then lived in the house until 1874. Update: See comment below about the demolition of this house.
At the intersection of Walkley, Hayden Hill, and Saybrook Roads in Haddam is a Georgian-style house, originally built in 1785, but with significant Victorian era alterations. These include a central gable and two dormer windows on the front facade, a porch wrapping around three sides of the house, and enlarged windows. The house was built by Simon Hazelton, Sr., who had been a captain in the Revolutionary War. In the twentieth century, the house was converted to become a rest home known as the Walkley Hill Home.
Haddam Neck, on the east bank of the Connecticut River, was originally settled around 1710. For thirty years, the residents made the trip each Sunday across the River to attend church services in Haddam. In 1740, residents of Haddam Neck joined with those of Middle Haddam (in East Hampton) to form a seperate ecclesiastical society, the First Congregational Church of Middle Haddam. The first meetinghouse was constructed in 1744 on Hog Hill, between the two communities, and this was replaced by a new building in 1813, located near Hurd Park. Middle Haddam residents withdrew to form their own church in 1855. The current Haddam Neck Congregational Church, a wooden Gothic Revival church in a woodland setting, was built at the foot of School House Hill in 1873-1874. In 1916, Haddam’s old 1822 schoolhouse was moved adjacent to the church to serve as a parish house.
Dating to about 1880, the Haddam Neck Congregational Church Parsonage on Schoolhouse Road in Haddam Neck may have been moved from another location to become the parsonage around 1882. The Church has rented the house since 1941.
In 1832, Joseph K. Selden built a house on Quarry Hill Road in Haddam Neck, although the following year he moved to Ohio. The house was purchased by Harris Cook and was later rented and then purchased by Alexander Dallas, a stonemason born in Scotland. After a fire in 1880 nearly destroyed the house, Dallas rebuilt the originally Federal style house, changing the facade to reflect the Gothic Revival.
The Asa Brainerd House sits on land in Haddam which was owned, from 1788 to 1795, by Leveus Eddy, and was built sometime during that period. It was then purchased by Simon and Asa Brainerd, the latter of whom lived there until his death in 1815. The Brainerd family, who operated nearby granite quarries, sold the house out of the Brainerd family for a time, but later in the nineteenth century, the elegant house, which had fallen into disrepair, was acquired and restored by Asa Brainerd’s grandson, William E. Brainerd. It has remained in the Brainerd family ever since. The Greek Revival entryway was added in the 1830s.
On Quarry Hill Road in Haddam Neck is the home of John Brainerd, built in 1825. According to The Genealogy of the Brainerd Family in the United States (1857), by David Dudley Field:
John Brainerd married first Eliza Day, daughter of Daniel Day, of Westchester, in Colchester, November 1, 1826, who died January 5, 1844, in her fortieth year; and after her death, Delina Dickinson, daughter of Abner Dickinson, of Eastbury, in Glastenbury (sic), February 14, 1845.
Delina Brainerd lived in the house until her death in 1900.
You must be logged in to post a comment.