Byron Tuttle House (1793)

Byron Tuttle House

At 655 Main Street in Plymouth is a Federal/Greek Revival house built in 1793. It was later the home of Byron Tuttle. As related in the Illustrated Popular Biography of Connecticut (1891):

Mr. Tuttle was born in Plymouth, Conn., August 23, 1825, the son of a farmer, and his early years were spent at home with the best of life training, that of a New England farmer boy; having the advantages of the common district school of those days. On the 26th of August, 1847, he entered the carriage establishment of Augustus C. Shelton of Plymouth, afterward entering into partnership with him under the firm name of Shelton & Tuttle.

As described in the History of the Town of Plymouth, Connecticut (1895):

Byron Tuttle entered the employ of Mr. Shelton August 26, 1847, for $13 per month and board. The next three years he worked for $1.00 per day and board. January 1, 1855, he was taken into partnership with one-half interest. Their trade originally was with the southern market. From 1854 to 1860 every carriage was sold through their house at Chicago. Their western business proved a great success owing to large advance in price of their goods. In 1864 they built a repository on Madison street, Chicago, which they occupied until April 1, 1870, when the business declining the building was disposed of and the partnership so far as the manufacturing was concerned was dissolved. From that time forward Mr. Shelton carried on the business in a limited way until his death in 1880.

Again from the Illustrated Popular Biography of Connecticut:

In 1864 they built a repository on Madison street, Chicago, which was burned in the great fire of 1872, without much loss to the company, when the property was sold and Mr. Tuttle retired from the business. […] Aside from private business Mr. Tuttle has occupied a prominent place in the affairs of the town, having been elected justice of the peace in 1864 and selectman in 1878, which offices he has filled continuously to the present time. […] Mr. Tuttle’s characteristics as a business man are energy, promptness, thoroughness, and integrity. It is perhaps the secret of his general success in life, that in whatever he engages he observes the same rules of conduct that govern him in the management of his business affairs.

The Quiet House (1766)

The Quiet House

The house at 711 Main Street in Plymouth Center was built in 1765-1766 and was owned by Major David Smith, who served with George Washington at Valley Forge. Washington stayed at this house in September 1780 on his way to meet the Comte de Rochambeau in Hartford. The house was later (c. 1850) operated as an inn by A.B. Curtiss and, after his death, by his widow. It was called it the Quiet House because alcohol was not served. As related in the History of the town of Plymouth, Connecticut (1895):

A. B. Curtiss was born in the town of Plymouth in 1819, and died at the age of sixty-seven. While a boy he entered the store of Edwin Talmadge as clerk, and his aptness for business and pleasant manners so commended him to his employer that when he became of age he was taken into partnership. The firm did a large business for those days, but unfortunate endorsements caused their downfall. Mr. Curtiss started in business again in the Stephen Mitchell store, but soon after bought the property where he died, remodeled the house, and opened a hotel. Except for a couple of years, when he kept the Brown hotel in Waterbury, he had for forty years welcomed strangers to his house and catered to their wants. He was well fitted for a landlord by his care to have everything pleasant, his genial hearty manners and business like ways. He was a benevolent, public spirited man. always ready to do his full share in common enterprises. His later years were full of suffering, yet to the last he had a bright and cheery word for each friend and acquaintance. Mrs. A. B. Curtiss still keeps the doors of the Quiet house open to strangers and travelers, some of whom often travel out of their way to indulge in the homelike accommodations that are to be had there.

George Langdon House (1865)

6887 Main St., Plymouth

Born in Plymouth in 1826, George Langdon graduated from Yale in 1848. After experiencing a financial reverse as an industrial entrepreneur in Colchester after the Panic of 1857, he returned to Plymouth, where he owned a farm. He became the wealthiest man in town. He served as state representative in 1859 and as first selectman from 1859 to 1865. His Gothic Revival house was built at 688 Main Street in Plymouth circa 1865.

Terryville Congregational Church (1970)

Terryville Congregational Church

In 1838, members of the Plymouth Congregational Church who wanted to have a church that was closer to the industrial area of Terryville formed the new Terryville Congregational Church. Clock maker Eli Terry, Sr. was a member and he donated the clock which he manufactured for the front facade of the church. The church was destroyed by fire in 1967 and the current Terryville Congregational Church, rebuilt on the same location (233 Main Street), was dedicated on October 18, 1970. (more…)

Augustus C. Shelton House (1825)

Augustus C. Shelton House

Based in Plymouth, Shelton & Tuttle Company was a successful manufacturer of buggies and other horse-drawn vehicles in the nineteenth century. The company’s founder, Augustus C. Shelton, built an elaborate Greek Revival house at 663 Main Street circa 1850 (or was the house built earlier, in 1825, and Shelton moved in later?). Shelton had served an apprenticeship as a wheelwright in New Haven before returning to his hometown of Plymouth in 1837. He set up his carriage factory, which was run by his partner, Byron Tuttle, after his death in 1880.