Roxbury

Asahel Bacon House (1784)

At 3 South Street, corner of Weller Bridge Road, in Roxbury is a house built c. 1784 for Asahel Bacon. The son of Woodbury merchant Jabez Bacon, Asahel Bacon was also a merchant and an investor in the Roxbury iron mine. He left the house to his daughter, Mary Bacon Whittlesey. In 1850 George Whittlesey sold the house to Col. George Hurlburt (1809-1904), who manufactured hats in the 1840s and 1850s. He is described in vol. III of New England Families, Genealogical and Memorial (1913):

George, son of Major Hurlburt, was born in Roxbury. October 14. 1809. He learned the hatter’s trade under Colonel William Odell, of Washington. Connecticut, and worked at it until 1860, when he became a general merchant; later in life he engaged in farming. He was appointed postmaster by President Lincoln, and was a member of the state legislature. He married, January 7, 1833, Thalia A. Merwin, of Brookfield, Connecticut

Col. Hurlburt was succeeded as postmaster by his son, George W. Hurlburt. The town store and post office once stood on the property. A total of four generations of Hurlburts lived in the house.

Frederick Lathrop Hat Shop (1840)

The building at 7 Church Street in Roxbury, near the Green, was built circa 1840 as a hat shop by Frederick W. Lathrop. Hat making was an important cottage industry in Roxbury at the time, although industrial manufacturing supplanted it by the time of the Civil War. The building was later used as a residence.

Dr. Myron Downs House (1842)

The Greek Revival house at 38 Church Street in Roxbury was built in 1842 for Dr. Myron Downs. His life is described in the Proceedings of the Connecticut Medical Society, Vol. IV, No. 1 (1888):

Myron Downs, M.D., was born in the town of Roxbury, Litchfield Co.. Conn., A.D. 1805.

He studied medicine with Dr. Josiah R. Eastman of that town, and graduated from the medical department of Yale College in 1830, and the same year became a member of the Litchfield County Medical Society, which relationship continued to the day of his death.

He practiced his profession a few years in the village of New Preston in the adjoining town of Washington. At the earnest solicitation of Dr. Eastman, who wished to give up his practice, he returned to Roxbury in 1832, and was soon engaged in a laborious country practice in which he continued nearly fifty years. He died in Roxbury, April 7, 1887.

Dr. Downs was a conscientious, faithful, and devoted physician, giving his long life to the practice of his profession regardless of any question of compensation for his services. An old and intimate friend justly said of him: “He seemed to consider the human race as one great family; that his services were due alike to rich and poor; that he would rather die without wealth than to make a demand for payment for services rendered to the poor and unfortunate members of the family.”

He was called upon to fill many important trusts in the community. He was Judge of Probate, Town Treasurer, a representative in the State Legislature, Postmaster, and for over forty years Town Clerk. To all of these offices he gave the same honest faithful service that he rendered by the bedside of his patients.

Dr. Downs was married to Marinda B. Benedict of New Preston. His wife died Oct. G, 1886. He had no children.

Phineas Smith House (1796)

After serving in the Revolutionary War, Phineas Smith of Woodbury settled in Roxbury. He built the house at 3 Southbury Road around 1796, the year the new town was incorporated, and served as Roxbury’s first representative in the state legislature in 1797. According to Homes of Old Woodbury (1959), p. 224, the columns at the front of the house came from an old church in New Haven that had burned and were drawn to Roxbury by ox cart. Phineas Smith married Deborah Ann Judson. Their son Truman Smith (1791-1884) became a lawyer in Litchfield and their second son, Phineas Smith (1793-1839), became a lawyer in Vermont.