Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

South Windsor

Eliakim Cook House (1790)

Eliakim Cook of East Windsor Hill (now in South Windsor) bought a house on Old Main Street in 1738 that had been built by Matthew Grant in 1710. Eliakim died in 1776 and in 1778 the house was rented to Dr. Primus Manumit. Formerly a slave belonging to Dr. Alexander Wolcott of Windsor, Primus was released from bondage and took the Latin word “Manumit” as his surname Having assisted Dr. Wolcott over the years in preparing medicines for the sick, he moved to East Windsor and worked as a doctor until his death in 1787. The old Eliakim Cook house was removed around 1790 when Cook’s grandson, also named Eliakim, built the current house on the lot. Not long after it was built, Eliakim sold it to his brother, Benjamin Cook, Jr. Note: This post was written on 09/02/2011 and backdated so that there would be a regular post for 04/01/2008 as well as an April Fool’s Post.

First Congregational Church of South Windsor (1846)

In 1691, the settlement of East Windsor petitioned the Connecticut General Court for the privilege of having its own church and minister, seperate from Windsor. In 1694, the first meeting house was constructed (to be replaced in 1714). The first minister, ordained in 1698, was Timothy Edwards, father of the renowned preacher and theologian Jonathan Edwards, who was born in the East Windsor Hill neighborhood. East Windsor became incorporated as a seperate town in 1768 and in 1845, South Windsor separated from East Windsor. The area where the Edwards had lived was part of the new town. The current Timothy Edwards Church (First Congregational Church of South Windsor) is on Main Street and was built in 1846.

Wood Memorial Library (1928)

Donated by William Wood, of South Windsor, in honor of his parents, Dr. William Wood (a distinguished ornithologist) and Mary Ellsworth Wood, the Wood Memorial Library, on Main Street, served as the one of town’s two libraries from its dedication, in 1928, into the 1970s, when a new library building was constructed on Sullivan Avenue. In 1971, the non-profit Friends of Wood Memorial Library was founded to oversee its continued operation, through private funds, as a library, museum and historical archive. The library, built between 1926 and 1928, was designed by the Hartford architect William Marchant in the Colonial Revival style, with features drawn from the Federal period.

Noah Welles House (1790)

Noah Welles, like his father Moses Welles, was probably a hatter and had a shop just north of his house, built in 1790 on Main Street in East Windsor Hill (now part of South Windsor). The new home was constructed after he sold his earlier house down the street. The house is close to the street, owing to the relatively small size of the original lot, purchased by Noah’s wife, Elizabeth. The house was built in the Federal style, with details influenced by those of the John Watson House nearby. Later additions include the veranda on the right side.

Asahel Nettleton House (1810)

In 1810, cigar-maker Nathaniel Rockwell, Jr. built a center-chimney house on Main Street in East Windsor Hill. Later facing debt, he sold the house in 1835 to Asahel Nettleton, who updated the house in the Greek Revival style. Nettleton, a minister and evangelist was a prominent figure of the Second Great Awakening. He participated in the New Lebanon Conference of 1827, where he and fellow Yale-graduate Lyman Beecher opposed the teachings of Charles Finney. In East Windsor Hill, he helped to found the Theological Institute of Connecticut and contributed proceeds from his volume of Village Hymns for Social Worship to help endow a professorship. Nettleton died in 1844, having willed his estate to the seminary, which later moved to Hartford. Nettleton’s colleague and East Windsor Hill neighbor, seminary professor and president Bennett Tyler, compiled a collection of Nettleton’s works and wrote a Memoir of the Life and Character of Rev. Asahel Nettleton, D.D.

Matthew Sadd, Jr. House (1781)

Located on Main Street, across from the Timothy Edwards Cemetery, in the East Windsor Hill Historic District of South Windsor, is a small house on a knoll. Its construction was begun by Matthew Sadd Jr. (son of Matthew Sadd the carpenter), who purchased the land in 1781. It was completed by a later owner, Samuel Terry, Jr., a brother of the clockmaker Eli Terry. The house has undergone extensive renovations, including the complete rebuilding of the old center chimney.

The Matthew Sadd House (1750)

Built in 1750 by the carpenter, Matthew Sadd, on Main Street in East Windsor Hill, on what had been the original land grant of Maj. John Mason in the seventeenth century. The house was originally built as a saltbox, instead of having a lean-to added later. Sadd sold it to his cousin, Abiel Grant, in 1753. Both men later worked on the building of the Ebenezer Grant House. The Sadd House was later owned by Elisha Bissell, a surveyor. It was passed down in the Bissell family until it was purchased by Dudlex Clapp in 1914. He then built and lived in a house next door, leaving the Sadd House unoccupied.