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

Fitch-Sackett House & Store (1860)

The building at 15 Center Street in Andover, built c. 1860, was originally the house and store of Jasper A. Fitch. Fitch’s father was a shoemaker, so he may have apprenticed to his uncle, William (or was it Henry?), a merchant in Hebron. Frederick A. Sackett, who came to Andover from Rhode Island, was a later storekeeper. F. A. Sackett also served as town clerk, treasurer and judge of the Andover Probate District. In 1938 the Andover Volunteer Fire Department was formed and the town acquired the Sackett store, which was remodeled to become a fire house. A third bay for vehicles was added to the existing two in 1955. Another bay was added in 1982. The Fire Department later moved to Andover’s new Public Safety Complex.

Edward A. Cole House (1785)

The Cole family once had an extensive farm in Berlin around the area where the house at 98 Norton Road stands today. The house was possibly built as early as 1785, but it was extensively remodeled and “Victorianized” a century later by Edward A. Cole.

Benjamin Smith House (1807)

Benjamin Smith, a descendant of early settlers of Haddam, erected the house at 432 Candlewood Hill Road in 1807, the year he married Lydia Burr, daughter of Captain Jonathan Burr. Their son Benjamin W. Smith inherited the house in 1833. He left Haddam in 1856 and sold the house to the Skinner family. The house once had a central chimney that was removed about 1904.

Hurd-Osborn-Oatman House (1806)

Located at 1531 Southford Road in the village of Southford in Southbury, the Hurd-Osborn-Oatman House was built in 1806 by George Thompson as a hotel. As explained by John L. Rockey in the second volume of his History of New Haven County, Connecticut (1892):

In the period of time when the turnpike was the great thoroughfare between New Haven and Litchfield, Southford being 20 miles from the former place and 25 miles from the latter, hotels were here kept and were well patronized. [. . . ] The hotel known as the Oatman House for 35 years, was built by George Thompson in 1806, and first kept by him and then by his brother-in-law, Benjamin S. Hurd, followed by John Peck. Enos Foot was the landlord in 1845.

George Thompson and Benjamin Smith Hurd married two sisters, Clarissa and Esther, daughters of Adin Wheeler, who helped to fund construction of the hotel. The hotel had many owners over the years. Benjamin Blagg Osborn, son of merchant and Revolutionary War patriot Shadrach Osborn, was tavern-keeper in the 1820s. Charles R. Oatman (1827-1904), under whose name the hotel was long known, acquired the property in 1870. Oatman married Orinda T. Hurd, daughter of Benjamin R. Hurd, in 1850. The Oatman family owned the hotel until 1899 and even under later owners it was still known for many years as the C. R. Oatman Hotel. It later became the Fennbrock Dairy.

Glenbrook (1696)

The oldest section of the house at 429 Quaker Farms Road in Oxford dates to 1696. It was built by William Tomlinson, whose son Isaac inherited it in 1719. The house was substantially enlarged and given a Federal-style facade by Charles Meigs around 1814. The house was enlarged again by Mr. and Mrs. Courtney in the twentieth century. Mr. Courtney was a New York Circuit Court Judge who also had connections with the theater world. Actors like Basil Rathbone were frequent guests. The house remained vacant from 1927 until 1944, when it acquired new owners. It has been known as “Glenbrook” for many years.

Beecher-Chatfield House (1769)

Note: The Beecher-Chatfield House is featured on this website solely because I read, at second-hand, that it is an early house with an interesting history. The information I provide about the house below is based on a brief entry in the 1976 book Early Houses of Oxford, supplemented by what I could discover about the house by means of an internet search at the time I originally wrote this post in 2016. The information presented below is not based on a professional evaluation of the property or formal research into its historic character. I have no knowledge of the physical condition of the house, the extent to which it has been altered over the years, or how much of its earliest construction remains. The house is not listed in the National Register of Historic Places, either individually or as part of a larger historic district, and to my knowledge it is not under the authority of a local historic district commission. This website was started as a hobby and I do not represent an agency or organization with authority to make an official judgement about the historic character or status of any property, including the Beecher-Chatfield House.

The house at 136 Chestnut Tree Hill Road Extension in Oxford was built in 1768-1769 by Isaac Beecher (1748-1789). It remained in his family until 1811. John Riggs, Beecher’s son-in-law, next owned the house until the title was transferred to Abijah Chatfield in 1816. The house was owned by members of the Chatfield family until 1908. The house has since had many occupants. In the 1940s it was the home of photographer Alfred Cheney Johnston (1885-1971), who set up his studio in the barn. Johnston was a glamour photographer famed for his portraits of Ziegfeld Follies showgirls.

St. Mary Church, Union City (1923)

The first Catholic parish in Union City in Naugatuck began as mission of St. Francis of Assisi Church in Naugatuck, becoming St. Mary Parish in 1907. A chapel was erected the following year and the finished St. Mary Church, located at 338 North Main Street, was dedicated on May 27, 1923. St. Hedwig Parish, Union City’s other Catholic parish, was founded by Polish immigrants in 1906. The current St. Hedwig Church and school complex on Golden Hill Street was dedicated in 1968.