William Tully House (1750)

In 1745, William Tully of Saybrook divided his property among his heirs, with land at North Cove going to his son, also named William Tully. Soon after (c. 1750), the second William Tully built the house that still stands at 135/151 North Cove Road in Old Saybrook. Perhaps starting with just one room, the house has been much enlarged over the years. The house is also known as Heartsease, perhaps for the flower Viola tricolor that once grew in the yard. The name may also have originated during the period of time the building served as a summer house for female workers. At one time the house was known as the Whittlesey House for Captain John Whittlesey, who seems to have owned it at some point in the eighteenth century. During the Revolutionary War, on the night of August 8, 1779, a notable incident took place at the house. A group of Tories from Middletown had been caught having brought goods down the Connecticut River to sell to the British. Their confiscated merchandise was stored in the basement of the Tully House under the charge of the third William Tully, then 21 years old. As related by Mabel Cassine Holman in “Along the Connecticut River” (The Connecticut Magazine, Vol. XI, No. 4, 1907):

eight Tories came to the house and demanded entrance. Tully refused to open the door. Without further words it was broken in. Taking his old flint gun, Tully fired; the musket-ball passed through the first man, who still advanced, but the one directly back of him dropped dead. Tully turned upon the other six, wounding one with his bayonet; the remainder escaped by the windows. When the first man whom Tully shot discovered the ball had passed through him he dropped dead with one hand on the window and the other grasping a chest of tea.

The fourth William Tully was a noted doctor. Born in the house in 1785, he graduated from Yale in 1806 and then studied at Dartmouth Medical College, receiving his medical license in 1810. He practiced medicine in various places, including Middletown, CT and Albany, NY, before serving as professor of materia medica and therapeutics at the Medical Institution of Yale College from 1829 to 1842. As related in Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College, Vol. VI (1912):

For a time his relations with his colleagues were satisfactory; but eventually he was dissatisfied with his compensation, and imagined that there was a conspiracy to slander him, so that he ceased giving his lectures in the spring of 1841. His resignation of his professorship was not accepted until August, 1842. Subsequently he spent nearly a year in South Carolina, without his family. In the spring of 1851 he removed to Springfield, Massachusetts, where he died on February 28, 1859, in his 74th year. During his later years his professional occupation was mainly in consultation, and his circumstances were sadly straitened. He was buried in New Haven.

Dr. Tully was much respected during his lifetime as a particularly learned doctor and a research-oriented professor. As related in Sketches of the Old Inhabitants and Other Citizens of Old Springfield of the Present Century (1893), by Charles, Wells Chapin:

The late Noah Webster, D.D., in the preparation of his dictionary, acknowledged his indebtedness to Dr. Tully for important aid, in that he had the supervision of the department of the work relating to the subject of medicine. Dr. Tully died February 28, 1859, aged 73 years

In 2002, the Tully House was at the center of a preservation struggle between an owner who wanted to demolish it and preservationists.

Union Society of Phoenixville House (1806)

Phoenixville is a village in the town of Eastford. At the junction of Routes 44 and 198 (4 Hartford Turnpike) is a former residence that would become the Union Society of Phoenixville House. It was built in 1806 as the home of Smith Snow (1784-1842), a mill-owner. In 1858, Snow’s heirs conveyed the house to Lydia Clark, the wife of his nephew, Albert B. Clark (1825-1903), a shoemaker. Around the turn of the century, the house was already being used as a nondenominational Sunday School, which officially incorporated in 1907 as the Union Society of Phoenixville and purchased the building. It also served as a meeting place for the local community and by the 1940s was commonly known as the Community House. The building was moved a short distance west of its original location circa 1930 to accommodate highway improvements. The building was in use until 2000, but already before that time fewer events were being held and maintenance issues had made preserving the building difficult (by the 1960s the upper floor had become unsafe). The Union Society sold the building to the Town of Eastford in 2002 and it has since been the object of preservation efforts (the roof was replaced in 2009).

Dr. William L. Foot House (1780)

The house at 29 Wallingford Road in Cheshire was built by Stephen Jarvis circa 1780-1800. It was soon purchased by Dr. William L. Foot (1778-1849), probably around the time of his marriage to Mary Scovill in 1801. Dr. Foot was the son of Reverend John Foote (1742-1813), the second pastor of the Cheshire Congregational Church. Near their home, Dr. Foot operated a pharmacy with his son, John L. Foot.

As related in Old Historic Homes of Cheshire, Connecticut (1895), complied by Edwin R. Brown:

Dr. Foote was an excellent physician of the old-school type. Horace G. Hitchcock stated in his “Recollections of Cheshire” that it was owing to the skill of Dr. Foote that the Cheshire cemetery was not ornamented by a small tombstone sacred to his memory, aged twelve years.

At this home, in the year 1837, Edward Doolittle, the son-in-law of Dr. Foote, died of small-pox, and for a time the house was quarantined.

Dr. Foote was not only prominent as a physician, but also as a leading town official. He was town clerk several years, and was the first judge of probate elected from this district and from this town. His daughters, Abigail and Mary, were prominent singers in the Congregational Church choir, where their voices could be distinctly heard above all others. Dr. Wm. Foote was a son of the Rev. John Foote, whose descendants were once numerous and influential in this town.

The house is now home to Norm’s Barber Shop.

Memorial Town Hall, Madison (1897)

Memorial Town Hall in Madison was built in 1897 to honor the town’s Civil War veterans. Vincent Meigs Wilcox, a wealthy merchant, was donor to both the hall and another, more traditional Civil War monument, the Wilcox Soldiers’ Monument. The building originally served as a community center, becoming Madison’s Town Hall in 1938. A new town hall was built in 1995, but the old hall continues to house some municipal offices, meeting rooms, and the Charlotte L. Evarts Memorial Archives.

William Tomlinson House (1836)

The house at 467 Quaker Farms Road in Oxford was built in 1836 by William Tomlinson. It was next owned by Stephen S. Mallett, who sold it in 1899 to Charles Davis, a prominent farmer who was active at Christ Church, located directly across the street. After his death, the house was owned by his step-daughter, J. Mabel Lum (1880-1964), an influential citizen of Oxford who was also active at Christ Church. For a time the property was the Quaker Farms Nursery.