At 1095 South Grand Street in Suffield, near the East Granby town line, is a house built in 1781 by Hezekiah Lewis, a farmer. It is an early vernacular example of a house constructed of brick, which had not been a common material for Connecticut houses up to that point. Stylistically and structurally, the builder simply transferred the typical architecture of center-chimney wood houses to the new material. The house is not far from Windsor, which was the center of Connecticut brick making at the time. In 1794, Lewis married the widow Ruth Phelps. He died in 1805. Later in the nineteenth century, Lewis’ successors as owners of the farm began to focus more and more on growing broadleaf tobacco, which had come to dominate the agriculture of the area. Michael Zukowski, who arrived in Suffield in 1888, purchased the farm in 1905, becoming the first Polish landowner in town. His descendants continue to own the house.
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