Towns

Jedediah Lathrop House (1822)

Now owned by the Town of Guilford, the Jedediah Lathrop House was built in 1822 on Park Street. Maj. Jedediah Lathrop had torn down a preexisting house on the same site to build his impressive Federal-style home. Lathrop, who married Mary Caldwell in 1793, was a prominent citizen, master of St. Alban’s Masonic Lodge and part of the reception committee for General Lafayette, who visited Guilford in 1824. Lathrop also cultivated grapes, like those displayed at the 1838 fair of the Horticultural Society of New Haven. The house was later owned by Bernard C. Steiner, author of the History of Guilford and Madison, Connecticut (1897). A barn on the property was attached to the house and a new wing added around 1960.

Five Mile Point Lighthouse (1847)

The first Five Mile Point Light was constructed of wood in 1805 on the East side of New Haven Harbor. It was called Five Mile Point due to its distance from downtown New Haven. Considered to not be high or bright enough, the original tower was eventually replaced, in 1847, by the current one, built of brownstone with a brick lining. A newer lighthouse, built on nearby Southwest Ledge in 1877, superseded Five Mile Point Light, which thereafter ceased operation, although a caretaker continued to look after the structure. The land around where the lighthouse stands was later owned by the War Department and then the State of Connecticut, before eventually being acquired by the City of New Haven in 1924. This land soon became Lighthouse Point Park. The tower was renovated in 1986, with the exterior being steam cleaned and repainted. Adjacent to Five Mile Point Light is an 1835 keeper’s house, which at one time was connected to the tower by an enclosed wooden walkway (no longer extant). [Note that in the picture above the lighthouse is strung with lights as part of the park‘s holiday season Fantasy of Lights.]

Casa Bianca (1848)

Casa Bianca is an Italianate house in New Haven, built around 1848. It most likely originally stood on Orange Street, but was moved to Bradley Street around 1882. In the early twentieth century, it was the home of George Dudley Seymour, a lawyer and preservationist. Born in Bristol, Seymour specialized in patent law in New Haven and was also dedicated to municipal improvements in the city. He urged the adoption of city planning (in line with the ideas of the City Beautiful Movement) and served as secretary of the city plan commission and the committee planning the construction of a new public library. Seymour also led the campaign to erect a statue of Nathan Hale on Yale’s Old Campus and he later restored the Nathan Hale Homestead in Coventry.

The Nehemiah Sperry House (1857)

The Italianate-style Nehemiah Sperry House was built in 1857 on Orange Street in New Haven. It was the home Nehemiah D. Sperry, a businessman and Republican politician. He was a builder and contractor, who joined his brother-in-law, Willis Smith, in the prominent New Haven firm of Smith & Sperry. Much of the Orange Street neighborhood was developed by the company, which also constructed the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument in the city’s East Rock Park. Sperry served as New Haven’s postmaster, Secretary of State of Connecticut and as a U.S. Representative in Congress from 1895 to 1911. A lighthouse in New Haven Harbor, which no longer exists, was named in Sperry’s honor, as he had contributed much to the harbor area’s development. Sperry’s house, which has a design likely attributable to the office of Henry Austin, was originally much lighter in color and resembled the similar Edward Rowland House on Wooster Square.

Second Randolph Please House (1832)

Around 1832, Randolph Please built his second home in Middletown, across College Street from his first home. This newer building has a classic Greek Revival temple-front. In 1916, it was remodeled to become a church. Today, it is Middletown’s First Church of Christ, Scientist.

The First Randolph Please House (1822)

Randolph Please built two homes in Middletown, on opposite sides of College Street, where it meets Broad Street. The first is a Federal townhouse, built around 1822, which once had four chimneys and a kitchen ell. The house is part of the Broad Street Historic District.

The Parke-Buckley House (1770)

Joseph Parke was a cooper who moved from Groton to Middle Haddam in 1758, when the community was still developing into what would become an important shipbuilding port on the Connecticut River. One of Parke’s sons built an asymmetrical saltbox house at Knowles Landing in 1770. After the Revolutionary War, it was occupied by Chauncey Buckley, a wealthy merchant and owner of privateers during the war.