Captain Charles Bulkeley was a Wethersfield ship captain and a privateer during the Revolutionary War, who died in the West Indies. He married Mary Griswold and had three sons who followed him to sea, including Captain Charles Bulkeley, Jr. The Bulkeley House, on Broad Street Green in Wethersfield, is a typical single-chimney, gambrel-roofed eighteenth-century ship captain’s home.
The 1760 Appleton Robbins House is a center chimney colonial home on Warner Place in Wethersfield. The house is built into a hill behind it. Recently (October, 2024) I received some information about the blacksmith shop on the property from someone who grew up in the house:
My father and crew of carpenters moved it from my grandmother’s family farm in Watertown, CT. I have newspaper clippings of the “barn raising” when they reconstructed it in Wethersfield in the 1960s. My father, Ted Tolman, actually used the forge and make some iron tools, hinges, etc.
Built in 1740 and later moved to its current location, on Main Street in Wethersfield, from a location nearer to the Meeting House, the John Loveland House may have originally been a Sabbath House. These were used by families who traveled a distance to attend church but could not go home easily for a break between services.
Built in 1837, the Stephen Willard House, on Broad Street Green in Wethersfield, followed the Greek Revival style of the time by having its gable-end face the street. This was to emulate the facade of a classical Greek temple. Unlike Greek Revival houses in which the front door was also on the facade, such as the Chester Bulkeley House (also in Wethersfield), the Willard House features a side entrance.
Stephen F. Willard was a later owner of the house. He began as a traveling salesman for the seed company Comstock, Ferre & Co., eventually becoming its president. He was also a founder of the American Seed Trade Association and the Wethersfield Village Improvement Association.
Built around 1759 for the merchant, Ezekiel Williams, on Broad Street in Wethersfield. Williams was the sheriff of Hartford County from 1767 to 1789 and, during the Revolutionary War, he served as a member of the Committee of the Pay Table and Deputy Commissary General of Prisoners in Connecticut. Ezekiel Williams‘ son, Ezekiel, married a daughter of Oliver Ellsworth.
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Built in 1818 on Main Street in Wethersfield for Capt. Jesse Goodrich, a ship owner and merchant. Each gable-end of the house features an oval window, with a chimney right behind it. The rear addition to this Federal style house dates to the 1870s.
Built in 1767, on Main Street in Wethersfield, for Simeon Belden, who married Martha, daughter of the minister, James Lockwood. It has a gambrel roof, similar to that of the Webb House and other nearby houses in Wethersfield. The Simeon Belden House is one of very few remaining in the Connecticut River Valley to have its original broken scroll, or swan’s neck, doorway pediment. The house, adjacent to Comstock, Ferre & Co., is currently used as offices and also houses the Krown & Kringle Danish pasty shop.
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