Southington

Josiah Cowles House (1750)

Captain Josiah Cowles was one of the earliest settlers of Southington. Born in Farmington in 1713, he settled in Plantsville around 1740, serving as a justice of the peace and a captain in the local militia. In 1774, he served on a committee to collect supplies for the relief of the people of Boston. He died in 1793 and is buried in Quinnipiac Cemetery. His house, at 184 Marion Avenue in Plantsville in Southington, was most likely built around 1750, two years after Capt. Cowles married his second wife. The house, which is now a bed & breakfast, has a large rear addition dating to 1988.

The Marcus H. Holcomb House (1876)

The Italianate-style House, built in 1876 by J.F. Pratt on Main Street in Southington, was later the home of Governor Marcus H. Holcomb from 1899-1932. Holcomb was a state attorney general and superior court judge, before serving as governor of Connecticut from 1915 to 1921. Gov. Holcomb was a Mason and his house, located on the west side of Southington Green, has been the home of Friendship Lodge No. 33 since 1933.

First Congregational Church of Southington (1830)

Southington‘s First Congregational Church‘s first meetinghouse was built in 1726 and stood where Oak Hill Cemetery is today. It was constructed after the farmers of Southington had successfully petitioned to have a seperate church, independent of the Farmington parish. The first meetinghouse was used until 1757, when it was replaced by a new building, located closer to what is today the center of town. The third and current church was built in 1830. Located on Southington Green, the church has a very similar design to the Congregational churches in Cheshire and Litchfield.

Southington Historical Center (1902)

In 1900, a small library opened in the Southington Town Hall, but money was soon raised to construct a library building on Main Street. Completed in 1902, this original library building is a neoclassical structure built of of glazed terra cotta brick and granite. In 1917, Emma Bradley Yeomans Newell, a wealthy philanthropist, donated money for the addition of a “historical wing” to the library. The wing, not actually built until 1930, was named the Sylvia Bradley Memorial, in honor of the wife of Amon Bradley and grandmother of the notable Southington citizen, Bradley Barnes. The Southington Historical Society, founded in the 1960s, housed its collections and met in the wing. A new library was constructed in 1974 and the old building then became a museum called the Southington Historical Center. It recently received a grant from the Community Foundation of Greater New Britain to complete renovations on the building.

The Bradley Barnes Museum (1836)

What is now the Bradley Barnes Museum, on Main Street in Southington, began as a Greek Revival style hose, built in 1836 for Amon Bradley, the same year he married Sylvia Barnes. Bradley, who had been a Yankee peddler in the south in his youth, invested in real estate and served as postmaster and in the Connecticut General Assembly. The Barnes Homestead remained in the family for three generations and had many additions and expansions, including the c. 1860 attic windows and the c. 1900 Colonial Revival porch. Bradley Henry Barnes, Amon’s grandson, was a successful manufacturer and financier. In 1973, he bequeathed the house and its contents to the town of Southington to be a museum. Numerous antiques were collected by the Barnes family over the years and are on display in the Bradley Barnes Museum, which is located not far from the Southington Green.