Maj. Samuel Wolcott House (1750)

The house at 381 Wolcott Hill Road in Wethersfield is believed to have been built by Maj. Samuel Wolcott about 1750. The Wolcott Coat of Arms are painted on a panel over the mantel in the house’s north parlor. A later resident was Elisha Wolcott (1755-1827), a hat maker. He married Mary Welles in 1775 and soon after served in the Revolutionary War in Capt. Hanmer’s company As related in Vol. I of Henry R. Stiles’ History of Ancient Wethersfield (1904):

Elisha Wolcott, gt-gd-son of Samuel Wolcott 2nd, after some service in the army at New York in the summer and autumn of 1776, is said, at Gen. Washington’s suggestion, to have returned to his home in Wethersfield for the purpose of making hats for the soldiers — and one of the “hat blocks” used by him in this manufacture, at the old Samuel Wolcott (present Bourne) house, is still in possession of his descendants.—Letter of Mrs. J. W. Griswold.

The Church of Eternal Light (1889)

The Church of Eternal Light is a Pagan Spiritualist church, located at 1199 Hill Street in Bristol. The early history of the building, erected in 1889 is related in Bristol, Connecticut (“in the Olden Time New Cambridge”) which Includes Forestville (1907):

A small Sunday-school was organized in 1884 in the North Chippins Hill district near the Burlington line, by Miss Hattie O. Utter, school teacher in that district. Miss Utter organized the school because the children of her day school were non-attendants of any Sunday-school. She conducted the Sunday-school successfully for a year when her engagement closed and she left the school to return to her home and be married. She was greatly beloved by the people of the district, and only lived about a year after her removal. At her earnest request Mr. William E. Sessions and Mr. B. S. Rideout, who was General Secretary of the Y. M. C. A. in Bristol, continued the school, beginning in June, 1885. The first Sunday only three little girls, sisters, Mary, Sarah and Lizzie Goodsell, were present. Mr. Rideout was only able to continue for a few months. Mr. Sessions conducted the school for four years in the schoolhouse, and has conducted it in the chapel ever since. There was a large and increasing attendance which outgrew the accommodations of the schoolhouse, and in 1889 the Mount Hope Chapel was built by voluntary contributions of the people and friends.

The chapel was dedicated by the Rev. A. C. Eggleston, who had been the pastor of the Prospect Methodist Episcopal Church in Bristol, but was at that time pastor of the First Methodist Episcopal Church in Waterbury.

The school was named Mount Hope by Mr. Rideout, who has been for many years a Congregationalist minister at Norway, Maine.

The building continued for many years as a non-denominational Sunday School and chapel. In 1962, it became the First Michel Spiritualist Church. Twenty years later, it was renamed The Church of Eternal Light, which officially became a Pagan Spiritualist church on February 18th, 2001. A new steeple and bell tower were erected in 2000.

Dr. Benjamin Weed House (1820)

The precise construction date for the house at 9 West Simsbury Road in Canton is uncertain, but town Assessor’s records give it a date of 1820. The house once retained its original stone sink, with a spout to drain the water outside. There was also once a small building on the northwest side of the house that was used as an office by the property’s owner, Dr. Benjamin Weed, Jr. (1789-1846). A surgeon in the War of 1812, Dr. Weed practiced medicine and was also the first postmaster to be appointed (in 1826) for what was then called New Canton. He also served as Justice of the Peace. He moved to Bloomington, now Muscatine, Iowa in 1839 with other members of his family.