Ephraim Kirby House (1773)

The house at 113 South Street in Litchfield was completed around 1773 for Ephraim Kirby (it is also known as the Reynolds Marvin-Ephraim Kirby House). A veteran of the Revolutionary War, Ephraim Kirby became an attorney and in 1789 compiled the first volume of state law reports in the country. In 1804, President Thomas Jefferson appointed Kirby as the first Superior Court Judge of the Mississippi Territory. Kirby traveled to Fort Stoddert, in what is now Alabama, and died a few months later. His grandson was Edmund Kirby Smith, the Confederate general. The Kirby House was completely transformed in the early twentieth century with numerous Colonial Revival alterations.

First National Bank of Litchfield (1891)

The First National Bank of Litchfield long occupied a historic 1816 building on North Street in Litchfield. In 1891, another supplementary building was constructed on nearby West Street. Until recently, it contained the bank’s Trust Division and Investment Management Services. In 2010, the First National Bank of Litchfield merged with Union Savings Bank, founded in 1866.

St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, Litchfield (1921)

As described in History of the town of Litchfield, Connecticut (1845), by George C. Woodruff:

The members of the Church of England in this town, associated together for public worship about the year 1746, and it appears from their records that the Episcopal Society “was organized according to law, on the 26th of October, A, D. 1784.” Their first Church was erected nearly opposite the carriage manufactory of Mr. William Lord, about one mile westerly from the Court House. Their Church in the village was completed in the year 1812.

As further related in Historic Litchfield, 1721-1907 (1907), by Alice T. Bulkeley:

St. Michael’s Episcopal Church was dedicated in 1851 and is the third edifice, the first being built in 1749 about a mile west of the courthouse. The present church had a spire above the tower which was blown down in a storm a few years ago.

The current church building was erected in 1919-1921. In The Litchfield Book of Days (1900) is the following story about the earliest of these four church buildings:

When General Washington passed through Litchfield in the Revolutionary War, the soldiers, to evince their attachment to him, threw a shower of stones at the windows of the Episcopal Church. He reproved them, saying: “I am a Churchman, and wish not to see the church dishonored and desolated in this manner.”

John Allen House (1799)

John Allen (1763-1812), originally from Great Barrington, Mass., attended the Litchfield Law School from 1784 to 1786. He set up practice in Litchfield and became active in politics, serving as in the Connecticut House of Representatives (1793-1796) and the U.S. House (1797-1799). He was later a member of the State council and of the Supreme Court of Errors from 1800 to 1806. The John Allen House, at 91 North Street in Litchfield, was built around 1799. The Federal-style house was expanded and altered in the Italianate style around 1865.