Jonathan Bidwell House (1768)

Long thought to date to the seventeenth century (a plaque on the house once displayed the year 1666), the house at 475 Tolland Street in East Hartford is now thought to be the house referred to by Joseph O. Goodwin in East Hartford: Its History and Traditions (1879): “The house next east of this, owned by Oliver W. Elmer, was the homestead of Jonathan Bidwell. He died in 1815.” It was likely built around the time of Bidwell’s marriage to Anne Benton in December 28, 1768. It was then owned by Bidwell’s son, also named Jonathan, who died in 1858. Oliver W. Elmer bought the house in 1864 from Bidwell’s daughter, Ruhamah Bidwell Elmer. The house once had a “coffin door” on the west side that was removed around 1987.