Calvin Willey House (1776)

The house at 41 Tolland Green in Tolland was built circa 1776. In the early nineteenth century, it became the home of Calvin Willey (1776-1858), postmaster and judge of probate, who served as a United States Senator from 1825 to 1831. Willey was chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture in the Nineteenth Congress. After leaving Congress, he returned to his law practice. The house was later acquired by Minnie Helen Hicks, who opened it as a guest house called Meadow Crest. It is now owned by the United Congregational Church of Tolland.

McDonough Hall, University of Saint Joseph (1936)

Saint Joseph’s College, recently renamed the University of Saint Joseph, in West Hartford was founded in 1932 by the Sisters of Mercy, a religious institute of Catholic women. It was the first liberal arts college for women in the Hartford area. Classes were initially held at Mount Saint Joseph Academy, before the college moved to its own campus. Sister Mary Rosa McDonough, the College’s first dean, oversaw construction of the original campus buildings. The Administration and Science Building, erected in 1936, was renamed McDonough Hall in her honor in 1969.

Orrin and Electa Hale House (1817)

The house at 181 Main Street in South Glastonbury was originally the home of Orrin Hale (died 1870) of Portland and his wife Electa Taylor Hale (died 1865) of South Glastonbury. The date of their marriage is unknown, but their first child was born in 1817 and they were likely living in their new home by then. The house, which town assessors dated to 1770, combines elements of the Federal and Greek Revival styles.

Capt. George Dickinson House (1830)

As described in the History of Middlesex County, Connecticut (J. B. Beers & Co., 1884),

The Dickinson family, though not among the first settlers, were yet prominent people on Saybrook Point during and after the Revolutionary war. Captain George Dickinson, who was born in 1770, was for many years a ship master and at times resided in foreign ports as agent. He was at Copenhagen, Denmark, when that city was bombarded by Captain, afterward Lord Nelson, and at his death, in 1857, at the age of 81, was the wealthiest man in the town.

Around 1830, Capt. George Dickinson (1770-1857) built a house at what is now 191 North Cove Road in Old Saybrook. The west end of the building contained a ship chandlery.

Peleg S. Barber House (1840)

At 55 Mechanic Street in the village of Pawcatuck in Stonington is a Greek Revival house built circa 1840. The National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination for the Mechanic Street Historic District indicates it is the Peleg S. Barber House. There was a Peleg S. Barber who served in the militia from Stonington in the War of 1812. Another Peleg S. Barber (1823-1901) was prominent resident of Pawcatuck. As related in the Illustrated Popular Biography of Connecticut (1891):

Mr. Barber was born in North Kingston, R. I., April 29, 1823. He received the advantages of a good common school education, and has been largely engaged in mercantile and manufacturing business, though at present confining his attention chiefly to transactions in real estate. He was for sixteen years in cotton manufacturing, and from 1850 to 1853 was in the gold mines of California. He married, early in life, Miss Sarah Gardner, who is still living. Mr. Barber is largely interested in the Pawcatuck National Bank, of which he is, and for sixteen years has been, a director. He is president of the People’s Savings Bank of Pawcatuck; also treasurer of the Pawcatuck Fire District since its organization in 1887, for sixteen years treasurer of his school district, fifteen years a member of the town board of relief, and a notary public. He was on the board of assessors for several years, and has held various other local offices in the town in which he resides, where he has led an active and useful life for thirty-four years, and is highly respected and esteemed by all his townsmen.

Peleg S. Barber was a great philanthropist and community leader. As described in the Sixth Annual Report of the School Committee of the Town of Stonington, Connecticut For the School Year 1915-1916:

At the annual meeting of the Eighteenth School District, held June 28th, 1899, Mr. Barber presented a writing, in which he stated that, “desiring to manifest in a material and permanent manner his interest in the public school he had deposited the sum of one thousand dollars ($1,000) in the Niantic Savings Bank of Westerly to be called The Peleg S. Barber Memorial Fund, the annual interest of which should be divided into three (3) prizes, to be awarded to those three students, of either sex, who are now or may hereafter be registered in the schools of the Eighteenth School District, who shall present the best three essays on any one or more subjects previously announced by the principal.”

When the fine school building on West Broad Street was dedicated in February, 1900, Mr. Barber gave several hundred dollars’ worth of books to the school library and also provided a fund of five hundred dollars ($500.), “to be known as the P. S. Barber Library Fund,” the income from which should be used in the purchase of books to add to and replenish what he desired to be a growing library.

Stephen Brooks House (1805)

The house at 384 Saybrook Road in Higganum (in Haddam) was originally erected in 1805 as a three-bay residence with a side hall (the front door being in the right bay). A two-bay addition was constructed in 1981 on the west side (so now the front door is in the central of five bays). The house was built by Stephen Brooks (1777-1860), a manufacturer and carpenter. In 1848 he sold the house to Calvin Hull, whose family owned the house for several decades.