Historic Buildings of Connecticut - Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Hakes-Gray House (1795)

The house at 34-36 Main Street in North Stonington was built in 1795. Around 1860 it was the home of Wheeler Hakes, a shoemaker, and in the 1940s it was occupied by postmaster C. Ernest Gray.

The Italianate house at 29 Four Rod Road in Berlin was built around 1855 by William Daniels. Because Daniels was a carpenter-builder, the house’s elaborate Greek Revival ornamentation may have served to advertise his skill at carving.

Jonathan Bishop, Sr. House (1787)

Jonathan Bishop built the house at 191 State Street in Guilford in 1797. He farmed the family land with his brother, Jared, who lived at 205 State Street, the house built by their father. The farm was inherited by Jonathan Bishop, Jr., who was called “Captain” and shipped his produce to New York on a sloop he berthed at Jones Bridge. William E. Pinchbeck bought the property in 1928 and erected the longest iron-frame greenhouse ever constructed for his rose-growing business, which continues today as Roses for Autism.

Leman Riggs House (1829)

The house at 195 Riggs Street in Oxford was built c. 1829 by Leman Riggs. A later owner was Wales A. Hubbell (1844-1866), who had a blacksmith shop on the property.

48 Pompey Hollow Road, Ashford (1815)

As described in yesterday’s post, St Philip the Apostle Church in Ashford is a Catholic parish established in 1921. Rev. John Joseph Nilan of Hartford sent Father William J. Dunn to a 135-acre farm he had acquired, land where the church would eventually be built in the 1930s. Until then, Father Dunn resided in an old farmhouse, 48 Pompey Hollow Road, in which he partitioned off a section to serve as a chapel. He had to endure local prejudice against Catholics, but eventually succeeded, with the help of the local Catholic community, in erecting the church. I don’t know who built the Federal-style farmhouse, but it appears to have been erected in 1815. Today the house is home to Antiques at Pompey Hollow.

St Philip the Apostle Church (1937)

St. Philip the Apostle Church, 64 Pompey Hollow Road in the Warrenville section of Ashford, was built of native stone in the 1930s through the efforts of the local farming community. Most were of Slovak descent and the church has a Byzantine copper onion dome. The church was erected through the leadership of Father William J. Dunn, who was sent to the new parish, which originally encompassed nine rural towns in eastern Connecticut, in 1921 and celebrated Masses in the old farmhouse in which he lived until the new church was completed. It was designed by New York architect Paul Chalfin, a summer resident of Warrenville.

Dr. Samuel Rose House (1775)

The house at 54 High Street in Coventry was built in 1775 by Dr. Samuel Rose (1748-1780). An army surgeon in the Revolutionary War, Dr. Rose married Nathan Hale‘s sister Elizabeth in 1773. In the the nineteenth century the house was used as a tavern. It remained in the Rose family until the death of Royal Rose at age 95 in 1951.