John Hudson House (1791)

The house at 26 Main Street in Old Mystic, Stonington was built c. 1791 by John Hudson, a tanner, on land he had acquired from Eleazer Williams in 1786. This transaction also included the gristmill across the street, at the head of the Mystic River. After his death in 1808, his son Phineas Hudson, continued the tanning business and inherited the house and mill, excepting the dower rights (1/3 of the house) of John’s widow, Mary. Two years before his death in 1811, Phineas (possibly ailing or under financial strain) sold the mill to his daughter Mary‘s father-in-law, Simon Avery. Mary bought the works back twenty-one years later. Mary married two Avery brothers. According to The Groton Avery Clan (1912), by Elroy McKendree Avery and Catharine Hitchcock Tilden Avery,

[Robert Nieles Avery] was b. Sept. 1, 1785, at Groton; m. June 19, 1806, at Groton, Mary (Polly) Hudson, dau. of Phineas and Margaret Hudson. She was b. Sept. 2, 1787, at Groton. He was a sea captain, and later a farmer. He was killed by the caving in of a sand bank, June 10, 1814. His widow m. 2d, Joseph Swan Avery, a brother of her husband. She d. Feb. 8, 1855, at Mystic.

[Joseph Swan Avery] was b. Oct., 1787, at Groton; m. Mrs. Mary (Hudson) Avery, dau. of Phineas and Margaret Hudson, and widow of his brother, Robert Niles Avery. She was b. Sept. 2, 1787, at Groton. He was a successful merchant and ship owner. She d. Feb. 8, 1855; he d. Nov. 10, 1865, both at Groton.

In 1816, Phineas’ heirs sold the house (except for Mary’s dower rights) to Jasper Latham, who added a shoe shop to the property. The house (now with the shop) was sold again in 1829.

Buckingham-Hall House (1760)

The Buckingham-Hall House at Mystic Seaport was erected circa 1760 in what is now Old Saybrook by the Buckingham family. The house, which was located near the ferry crossing at the mouth of the Connecticut River, was purchased by William Hall, Jr., son of a New York import merchant, in 1833. When construction of a new highway bridge across the river threatened it with demolition in 1951, the house was presented to Mystic Seaport by the State Highway Department. It was shipped by barge to its present location, where it was reconstructed and refurnished to represent the lifestyle of the Buckingham family in the 1810s. In 1994, the house was re-restored and reinterpreted to represent the Hall family.

(more…)

Frankenstein-Hemphill House (1887)

 

 

In 2013, local Pawcatuck teen Connor Beverly wrote a book entitled On the Corner of William and West Broad: A True Example of Aristocracy in Pawcatuck. It details the history of the house at 140 West Broad Street, which was built in 1887 and was in the Eastlake style. Beverly was inspired to write the book by a package of letters and photo negatives he purchased on eBay. They were formerly the property of Sally Frankenstein, a young girl who lived in the house. Later owned by the Hemphill family, who sold it in the early 1970s, the house was restored in the 1980s and was for some years the Sage House Bed and Breakfast.

Update: As noted in the comment below, the house was built based on a mail order design by Michigan architect D. S. Hopkins. It is very similar to the house by Hopkins in the illustration below: