Eleazar Fitch-John Ripley House and Store (1755)

Eleazar Fitch-John Ripley House and Store

At 19 Windham Green Road in Windham Center is a house built c. 1755. It has an attached structure on the east side that was once a store. The house has a nineteenth-century Victorian rear ell and the store has an eighteenth-century rear ell. The combined structure is known as the Eleazar Fitch-John Ripley House and Store. Col. Eleazer Fitch (1726-1796) served in the French and Indian War and served as high-sheriff of Windham County from 1752-1776. He later moved into a new grand house in 1763 that was destroyed by fire in 1923. During the Revolutionary War Fitch was a loyalist, although he was related by marriage to Windham’s leading revolutionary Eliphalet Dyer.

Stephen Perkins House (1845)

Stephen Perkins House

The house at 24 Hurlbutt Road in Gales Ferry, Ledyard was built in 1845 by Stephen Perkins, a whaling master, on land he had acquired in 1844 from Ralph Hurlbutt. Perkins owned the house until 1859, after which it had a series of owners who rented the house to different tenants until it was purchased by Warren Stoddard, son of Charles H. Stoddard, in 1898. In the 1860s and 1870s the house was rented by Capt. Gurdon L. Allyn (1799-1891), who wrote the book The Old Sailor’s Story (1879) about his many whaling and sealing voyages. As related in the History of the Town of Ledyard, 1650-1900 (1901), by John Avery:

In May, 1861, Capt. Allyn obtained a commission as acting master and coast pilot in the United States Navy, and received an order in June, from Com. Dupont, to report for duty on the United States frigate, “Saint Lawrence.” He was a participant in the famous Merrimac and Monitor engagement at Hampton Roads, in March, 1862. He had an honorable career in the navy, and in due time was discharged on account of his age. His salary while in the service, and the prize-money and pension, which he afterwards received, were a great help to him in his declining years.

Gurdon’s son, Gurdon F. Allyn, became a farmer and auctioneer in Salem.

United Church of Chester (1870)

United Church of Chester

The Congregational Church in Chester had two meeting two meeting houses (the second of which, built in 1793, became the old Town Hall, now called the Chester Meeting House) before constructing a new church on West Main Street in 1846. The Baptist Church constructed their own church next door in 1870. The two churches merged in 1941 to create the United Church of Chester. The Congregational Church was moved and attached to the rear of the Baptist Church building (29 West Main Street) in 1948-1949 to serve the united congregation.

Henry Perry House (1832)

Henry Perry House

In 1832 two similar Greek Revival houses were built in Southport for two brothers: the Francis D. Perry House and the Henry Perry House. The latter house, located at 45 Westway Road, was left by Henry Perry (d. 1847) to his wife Henrietta (d. 1892). It was then sold to Elisha C. Sherwood in 1892. Sherwood restored the house and on the north side he added a two-story section with an ornate first-story Palladian window and a two-story bay window.

Elmer Risley House (1895)

Elmer Risley House

Elmer Risley, a farmer, built the house at 252 Naubuc Avenue in East Hartford in 1895. After his father Ralph Risley died in 1899, Elmer’s son Cassius married moved into his grandfather’s house at 266 Naubuc Avenue. Elmer’s daughter Nellie, who married Merritt Smart, owned the house at 252 Naubuc Avenue after her father’s death. The house has notable decoration on its front porch with a wave lattice pattern under the roof in which the carpenter utilized machine-made wooden balls at regular intervals. Elmer Risley and his family are described in the Commemorative Biographical Record of Hartford County, Connecticut (1901):

Elmer Risley, who was born on Main street, in Hockanum, attended his first school in that village, and then entered the East Hartford high school, from which he graduated in 1868. He then engaged in farming on the place now ocupied [sic] by his son, Cassius E., and has carried on agriculture ever since, with the exception of the year 1871, when he was employed in William Rogers & Co.’s plating works. On Dec. 3, 1872, he was married, by Rev. William A. Turkenston, to Miss Adelaide M. Selen, who was born Sept. 3, 1852, and is a daughter of John and Maria (Hills) Selen. To this union have been born two children: Cassius E., born Feb. 6, 1876, married Jessie Wadsworth, of Glastonburv, Oct. 10, 1898, is a very industrious, upright young man, and now occupies the farm formerly owned by his grandfather[;] Nellie S., born May 25, 1880, is a young lady of rare musical ability, and is giving instruction in her art.

Elmer Risley is Democratic in his political proclivities, but votes for the candidate he deems best fitted for office, rather than for a less worthy one that may happen to be the nominee of his party, He is a charter member of East Hartford Council, No. 1237. Royal Arcanum, has held several offices in the council, and is also past master in the East Hartford Grange. He aid his wife and daughter are members of the Hockanum Methodist Episcopal Church, and Mr. Risley is a member of the board of trustees of that society. In addition to his farming operations, Mr. Risley acts as agent for Olds & Whipple’s fertilizers. He is enterprising, industrious and strictly upright, and no family in East Hartford town is more sincerely respected than that of Elmer Risley.