Moses Downs House (1755)

At 662 South Britain Road in the village of South Britain in Southbury is a house built c. 1755-1760 by Moses Downs. Also known as the Perry House, it originally had a saltbox form, but was later enlarged to two full stories. It also has a Greek Revival doorway from the 1850s. A carriage house and a shed on the property are thought to date to c. 1780. When South Britain established its own Congregational church society, separate from Southbury, its first meeting was held at the Downs House on June 5, 1766. As related in South Britain Sketches and Records (1898) by W. C. Sharpe:

It was voted that the Society hire preaching for two months and meet at the dwelling house of Moses Downs for public worship. On the 15th of September it was voted to build a meeting house[.]

The house later became the Methodist parsonage. As related by Sharpe in the same book,

The following is from an old letter (not dated) from Titus Pierce, the venerable town clerk and local historian, to Henry M. Canfield, Esq.:

“Religious meetings were held at first in the chamber of what is now the Methodist parsonage. The chamber was undivided and loose boards were laid for a garret floor on which corn was laid. Here I will relate an anecdote as I heard it from my father. An aged negro by the name of Jethro was famous for opening his mouth to an enormous extent when singing. While touching on his highest strains an unruly boy in the garret had shelled a handful of corn which he threw directly into Jethro’s mouth, which caused great consternation in coughing, gagging, &c.

Sharpe also explains that:

Deacon Eben Downs removed first from West Haven to Southbury, then to South Britain. He bought most of the land in the central part and built his house a little west of the widow George Curtiss’ dwelling house, which was pulled down a few years ago. His oldest son, Moses, built the house now occupied as the Methodist parsonage, also the old red house which stood opposite Downs’ store, and late in life he built the house now occupied as the Congregational parsonage, where he died.