Dr. J. Porter House (1754)

This is the start of Southington Week!!! The Dr. J. Porter House is a colonial residence at 391 Belleview Avenue in Southington. It may have been built as early as 1728 and was probably already standing in 1754, when Dr. Joshua Porter brought his new wife home to the house. According to Heman Timlow’s Ecclesiastical and Other Sketches of Southington, Conn. (1875), Dr. Porter

was the third resident physician [in Southington], although some of his descendants dispute that he ever practiced at all. But he came of a medical family, his father and grandfather both belonging to the profession. He probably practiced at first, but, like Dr. Skilton, he gave his attention more to business, and finally became the largest landholder in the town. Mr. Curtiss, in recording his marriage, gives him the title of doctor, so that he had it as early as 1754, the date of his marriage. He lived on the place now occupied by Joseph P. Piatt. It is said that he was the largest slaveholder that ever lived in town. He died February 20, 1803, aged eighty-five.

The same source notes that he was married twice: “Mercy, his wife, died March 14, 1796, in her 76th year, when he married (2) June 12, 1797, Mabel Pardee, as some suppose a sister or cousin of his first wife.” He also had a daughter named Mercy who married Samuel Pardee in 1777. Timlow notes that Pardee “removed to the old homestead of his father-in-law, Dr. Joshua Porter, where Joseph P. Piatt now lives. This place his wife inherited in part, and he appears to have bought the remainder.” There are four barns behind the house on this historic farm property.