Dr. Daniel Hooker House (1725)

Daniel Hooker – Timothy Griswold House

Built on Main Street in Wethersfield around 1725 for Dr. Daniel Hooker, a grandson of Thomas Hooker. It is the oldest surviving two chimney house in Wethersfield and is transitional because it lacks the Georgian center hallway typical of later two chimney houses. The house was enlarged in 1825 by Timothy Griswold. (Thanks to Anne Kuckro for information on this house).

(more…)

First Church of Christ, Wethersfield (1761)

first-church-wethersfield.jpg

Built in Wethersfield in 1761-1764, the First Church of Christ was the town’s third Meeting House. Designed in the Georgian style, it is a rare survival of a brick colonial meeting house. The steeple was most likely modeled on that of an Episcopal church, Trinity Church in Newport, R.I., which was in turn modeled on Christ Church in Boston. George Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau attended services here on May 20, 1781, during the period they were holding their important meetings in the nearby Webb House. In 1774, John Adams, who was visiting Silas Deane, wrote in his diary:

“We went up the steeple of Wethersfield meeting-house, from whence is the most grand and beautiful prospect in the world, at least that I ever saw.”

Cove Warehouse (1690)

Cove Warehouse in Wethersfield

Built around 1690 at Wethersfield, where there was a bend in the Connecticut River in the seventeenth century. At that time, this and other warehouses stored goods like lumber and foodstuffs (including Wethersfield’s famous red onions) before transport as part of the town’s flourishing trade with the West Indies. In exchange, Wethersfield’s merchants and ship captains would import sugar, molasses and rum from the Caribbean. Around 1700, a hurricane changed the course of the river, turning what was once a bend in the river into the present cove. The accompanying flood swept away the other six warehouses, leaving only this one. It was restored in 1934 and is today a museum run by the Wethersfield Historical Society which houses an exhibit on Wethersfield’s maritime history of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

covewarehouse.jpg