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

Fowler-Frisbie-West House (1682)

The structure at 33 and 37 Fair Street in Guilford has had a long and complicated history. By 1740 Mehitabel and Anna Fowler lived in a house at 33 Fair Street. A title search has revealed that their house had been built c. 1682 by the Fowler Sisters’ father and transferred to them in 1727. The house was acquired in 1824 by Russell Frisbie, who may have rebuilt or replaced the original house. In 1864, an Italian Villa-style structure (with the address of 37 Fair Street), either moved from elsewhere or newly erected, was attached to the older house. Here resided Frisbie‘s granddaughter Cornelia and her husband, Dr. Benjamin West. Their son, Dr. Redfield West altered the entire building to have a Gothic appearance, but it was later returned to its earlier appearance. Dr. Redfield West had earlier practiced medicine in New York, Boston and New Haven. As related in the Proceedings of the Connecticut State Medical Society (1921)

In order to be with his parents in their declining years, he removed to Guilford in 1892, opened his office in the house in which he was born and where he died, and soon succeeded in establishing a large and lucrative practice. Early in life he became intensely interested and very successful in chemical researches, and in 1899, and also 1900, was granted letters patent for improvements in photographic printing. In 1894 Dr. West was appointed by Governor Morris, State Chemist; reappointed by Governor Coffin in 1896; again by Governor Cooke in 1898, and by Governor Lounsbury in 1900. In 1897 he was appointed town health officer for Guilford, and also medical examiner in the same year, offices which he held for a period of years.

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Rev. Joseph Washburn House (1796)

The house at 118 Main Street in Farmington was built by Reverend Joseph Washburn (1766-1805) shortly after he acquired the land in 1796. Rev. Washburn was the sixth pastor of Farmington’s Congregational Church, serving from 1795 to 1805. Suffering from consumption, he left home with his wife and four children in October 1805 to spend the winter in a southern climate. He died on Christmas Day and was buried at sea while on his way from Norfolk, VA to Charleston, SC. His widow, Sarah Boardman Washburn, later married her second husband, Deacon Elijah Porter (1761-1845). In 1846, she and her son Horace sold the house to Chauncey Rowe (1815-1900), who operated a store on Main Street with Chauncey Deming Cowles. Rowe, who was an original trustee of the Farmington Bank, owned the house until 1897.

Georgiana Van Kleek Lyon House (1893)

Mark Twain had a complex and ultimately troubled relationship with Isabel Lyon (1863-1958), who served as his secretary in his later years. It eventually resulted in her dismissal in April 1909 and Twain’s writing of the infamous Ashcroft-Lyon Manuscript, a 429-page diatribe that attacked Lyon and her husband, Ralph Ashcroft, who with Lyon had for a time controlled all of the author’s business matters. Many years before Lyon would live near Mark Twain in Redding, Connecticut, she had resided with her mother, Georgiana Van Kleek Lyon (1838-1926), in Farmington. In the early 1890s, the widowed Georgiana lived with her children, Isabel, Louise and Charles, at Oldagate, an historic house at 148 Main Street in Farmington. Louise married Jesse Moore, a bond salesman with Richter & Co. in Hartford, who joined the Lyon household. The family engaged Henry H. Mason to build two houses across the street from Oldgate, which they moved into in 1893. The Moores and their new baby occupied 141 Main Street. Isabel built a house for herself and her mother, Georgiana, next door at 143 Main Street. Charles H. Lyon, Jr., Isabel’s brother, died in 1893, probably a suicide.

Woodford-Newell-Strong House (1666)

The building at 1 Waterville Road (AKA 820 Farmington Avenue) in Farmington contains sections of two much earlier houses. In 1807, Pomeroy Strong (1777-1861) purchased the land, which included the gambrel-roofed one-story Woodford House, built c. 1666 by Joseph Woodford Sr. Strong also acquired the Newell Homeasted, built some time earlier (perhaps as early as 1650) by Thomas Newell. Woodford and Newell were among the original 84 proprietors of the town of Farmington and in 1666 Woodford married Newell’s daughter Rebecca. By 1807 the Farmington Canal was being constructed and its path went right through where the Newell House stood. Strong moved the house to the east and, attaching it to the south of the Woodford House. He remodeled the structure, adding a second story. At Strong’s death his estate passed to his two daughters, Julia and Ellen Root Bartlett. In 1862 Ellen sold her interest to Julia and her husband, Dr. Chauncey Brown (1808-1879). He is described in Farmington, Connecticut, the Village of Beautiful Homes (1906):

Dr. Chauncey Brown was born in Canterbury, Conn. He went to Brown University for one year and then to Union College, whence he was graduated with honor. He was a student of Greek, reading the Greek Testament with great pleasure during the remainder of his life. From the medical school of Bowdoin he returned to Canterbury. In the last year and a half of the Civil War he was physician and surgeon in one of the hospitals of Washington. He came to Farmington about 1835 and in 1837 married Julia M. Strong. He was a strenuous believer in abstinence from alcoholic drink and also in anti-slavery when both beliefs were unpopular.

When the Amistad Committee arranged for the Amistad captives to stay in Farmington before returning to Africa, the girl named Temme was to be housed with the family of Horace Cowles. By the time she arrived at the Cowles residence on March 19, 1841, Horace Cowles had passed away and his widow soon moved to West Hartford. Temme then went to the house of Dr. Chauncey Brown, where she lived for most of her stay in Farmington. Dr. Brown’s wife, Julia Strong Brown, described her experiences with Tamme in The Farmington Magazine in February 1901:

It was a most singular episode in the quiet life of Farmington which brought to us the band of Mendians in which were included three Mendian girls.

One of these, by name Tamie, was sent directly to and remained with me until their departure for their native land, and she proved a most interesting personality. About fourteen years of age, she was tall, straight as an arrow, and lithe as a willow, with a soft low voice and a sweet smile which so far as I remember, never developed into a laugh. Her nature was rather serious and yet she was uniformly cheerful.

[ . . .] she was fond of flowers and particularly enjoyed a little garden which she tended carefully. I remember her joy when I had been preparing pineapples, she asked for the green crowns to plant and was so delighted when they began to grow. Her perceptions were keen and her questions innumerable.

The house later passed to the Browns’ son, Philip Brown, and then to his cousin, Eleanor Bartlett Phelps, who owned it until 1963. Since then it has been a commercial property. In 2011 the house was added to the town’s blighted building list because the property had deteriorated and had a shabby appearance. In 2014 there were plans to tear down the rear section (the 1666 Woodford House), but these later fell through. The building is currently vacant and is still a threatened building.

John J. Lawless House (1912)

The house at 36 Hurlbutt Road in Gales Ferry, Ledyard, was built in 1912 for John J. Lawless, a lawyer and military veteran. Active in New London, Lawless apparently had homes in both Ledyard and the Quaker Hill section of Waterford, his home town. As related in the Gales Ferry news section of the Norwich Bulletin of Saturday, July 10, 1915:

Mr. and Mrs. John J. Lawless entertained Monday Mrs. Carlos Chapman of Groton, Mrs. D. J. Cavanaugh, the Misses Beaudry and Earle Wooten of New London. In the evening Ernestine Talbot, Mrs. Lawless’ young daughter, entertained her young schoolmates and some friends with fireworks and light refreshments on the lawn.

They were celebrating Independence Day on July 5 (no doubt because July 4 that year was a Sunday). A description of the career of John J. Lawless can be found in A Modern History of New London County, Vol. II (1922), edited by Benjamin Tinkham Marshall:

John J. Lawless was born at Vinal Haven, Maine, May 17, 1876. He received the preliminary portion of his education in the public schools of New London, having been brought to this city when very young by his parents. After graduating from the New London High School, during which time his attention had been turned forcibly to the legal profession, he decided to make it his career in life and, accordingly, prepared for college at Mystic Valley Institute, graduating from this institution in 1901 and subsequently matriculating at the Albany Law School, from which he won the degree of Bachelor of Laws in the class of 1903. Returning to New London, he entered the law office of Abel P. Tanner, where he remained until 1904, when, after passing his bar examinations, he established himself in the practice of his chosen profession which has proven extraordinarily successful, having grown extensively up to the present time.

Major Lawless has always been interested in military life, and during the Spanish-American War enlisted as a private in Company A, Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, being later commissioned a second lieutenant. After the war he was commissioned captain of the Third Regiment, and held this post for many years. The World War offered him another opportunity and this he was quick and eager to grasp. Successfully passing the examinations for major at Fort H. G. Wright, New York, he was sent to Plattsburg, where he was assigned to the 9th Company of the New England Training Division, and was mustered out of service July 15, 1919. Major Lawless is now a member of the American Legion, and is also past commander of the George M. Cole Camp, United Spanish War Veterans.

[. . .]

Respected as he is both in New London and his home town, Waterford, his advance can have known no deviation from the strictest probity and the most up-right methods. Such a record is certainly worthy of emulation.

Major Lawless married, July 5, 1910, Alice Wilbur Talbot, daughter of George L. and Emma Wilbur Talbot, of Putnam, Connecticut.

Jeremiah Shailer House (1800)

Jeremiah Shailer (1770-1845) built the house at 168 Camp Bethel Road in Haddam around the time of his marriage to Jerusha Shailer (1766-1843), i.e. just before 1800. Their daughter, Maria, married Smith Clark and her son, Jared Shailer Clark (1824-1888), a farmer and teacher who held the office of constable and justice of the peace, later occupied the house. The house’s original Federal-style doorway was later removed.

Woodbury United Methodist Church (1839)

The Woodbury United Methodist Church, located at 4 Church Street in Woodbury, was erected in 1839. It replaced an earlier church the Methodists had built on the same site in 1824. The origins of the church are described in the History of Ancient Woodbury (1854) by William Cothren:

About the year 1790, before the general conference was formed in 1792, the first Methodist sermon in Woodbury was preached in the open air, in the street under the Rock, on which the Masonic Hall stands, by Rev. Samuel Wigdon, who was sent to preach in Litchfield circuit. This town was added to that circuit, and there was occasional preaching here after that to such as would “hear the word.” The first class was formed some time between the date of the first sermon and the year 1800. The church continued in a feeble condition till 1812, when Elijah Sherman, senior, better known to the people of this communion, and of the town, by the name of ” Father Sherman,” became dissatisfied with the Episcopal church, on account of some difference of opinion, as is understood, in relation to the adoption of the Episcopal church constitution, joined the Methodist denomination, and became very active and zealous in advancing its interests. The exact date of this transaction is not now at hand, but he was appointed the first regular class leader in 1812. Previous to this, the several ministers who had officiated here, had fulfilled the duties of that office. At this organization of the class, in 1812, the number of communicants was forty. From this time till 1824, “Father Sherman” threw open the doors of his house, and it became the place of public worship for this church. Having increased in numbers and means, they erected the first meeting-house on the site of the present church edifice, in 1824. But the class and social meetings of the society continued to be held at the house of Mr. Sherman, till the erection of the present commodious church, in 1839. This edifice is furnished with a good basement, and from that date the social meetings of the church have been held in it. The society here continued to constitute a part of some other circuit till 1832, when the circuit of Woodbury was formed, and this became the place of residence for its ministers.

In 1878 the church building was turned 90 degrees to face Church Street instead of Main Street and 21 feet in length were added to the rear.