Harvey Bronson House (1830)

The house at 974 Southford Road in Southbury was probably built around 1830-1840, but it was adapted to its current Greek Revival form by owner Harvey Bronson. The original front facade was on the south side, but Bronson made the street-facing gable end the new Greek Revival facade, c.1850. A number of Bronsons lived in the vicinity, as described in the History of New Haven County, Vol. II (1892), edited by J. L. Rockey:

Samuel Bronson, who married Elizabeth Tanner in 1735, was the father of the Bronsons of this locality, one of whom, Harvey, had a rope walk. Noah Bronson was a cooper and also a rope maker. His son, Aaron, was a cordwainer and button maker. His son, Harvey, manufactured clock cord extensively for the clock makers of Bristol and Waterbury, and was the last Bronson thus here engaged. Abel W. Bronson, the second son of Aaron, became a well known blacksmith and gimlet maker. A grandson of Aaron, C. W. Bradley, became a well known railroad man in New York.

As mentioned above, Havery Bronson (1795-1876), son of Aaron Bronson, made clock cord. The house was inherited by his son, David Bronson, whose estate sold the house in 1894 to Aaron Thompson.