John Warburton House (1803)

The first house to built in what would become the manufacturing village of Talcottville in Vernon was the brick Federal-style house of John Warburton, constructed in 1803. Warburton was a skilled mechanic who emigrated from England in 1792. He introduced mechanized cotton spinning to Connecticut in 1795, creating a water-powered cotton mill while he was working for the Pitkin family of East Hartford. In 1802, he left the Pitkins and, with his partner Daniel Fuller, built the first cotton-spinning mill on the Tankerhoosen River in Vernon (then called North Bolton). The Warburton House still stands at 19 Main Street in Talcottville, next to the old dam and mill pond. The house has notable brick fringe work found only on its north-facing corner. A second and grander Warburton House, known as the “Four Chimney House,” once stood nearby, but no longer survives.