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

Gideon Hale House (1762)

The house at 1401 Main Street in Glastonbury was built for Gideon Hale, probably in 1762, the year he married Mary White of Middletown. According to tradition, the wedding party crossed the Connecticut River after the wedding to the newly-built house and ended up staying for a week because of a severe snowstorm. Gideon Hale (1736-1812) was a member of the Connecticut General Assembly (1782-1785) and Constable of Glastonbury (1873). From December 1814 until the spring of 1817, the Columbia Lodge of Masons met at the house. As described in The Hollister Family of America; Lieut. John Hollister, of Wethersfield, Conn., and His Descendants (1886), edited by Lafayette Wallace Case:

The death of Mrs. Hezekiah Hale, at the age of 94, leaves the old Hale mansion in Glastonbury without a mistress at its head for the first time since its erection, one hundred and twenty-three years ago.

It was in this house, then just built, that Gideon Hale and Mary White, who were married December 23 [1762], commenced housekeeping, and here their youngest son, Hezekiah, brought his newly married wife, Pamela, daughter of Dr. Asaph Coleman, November 17, 1813. The elder Mrs. Hale died, a widow, April 1, 1820, and Mrs. Pamela Hale died Oct. 8, 1885, having survived her husband fifty three years. For one hundred and twenty-three years, lacking a little over two months, the house has seen but these two mistresses. Gideon Hale and Mary White reared a family of five sons and six daughters, under the old roof-tree, all of whom, except two daughters, were married and left the old place; and Hezekiah Hale and Pamela Coleman reared a family of three sons and three daughters, who, with one exception, went into the world and had families of their own; and the descendants of both, now widely scattered, will greatly miss the cheery greeting and hospitable welcome of the last mistress, who always made a visit to the old home so pleasant, and whose fund of anecdote and information regarding those who had gone, always so willingly given, was full of information and interest. The funeral of Mrs. Hale took place on Sunday afternoon, and was largely attended by sorrowing relatives and neighbors. The Rev. Mr. Betts, of the Episcopal church, officiated. The solemn dignity of that beautiful service in the rural cemetery, under the bright sun and genial October air, made the scene very impressive.

Mrs. Pamela Hale, the estimable lady here alluded to, was an aunt of the late Hon. Gideon Welles, of this city. Mr. Welles held in high esteem the venerable lady, and he was fond of the old homesteads in Glastonbury, where his father lived and where he was born. He used to relate many pleasant reminiscences of those fine homesteads, and the prominent families who occupied them.

The house’s front Connecticut River Valley doorway is a reproduction based on nineteenth-century sketches of the original. (more…)

16 Main Street, Plainfield (1880)

At 16 Main Street in Plainfield’s Central Village is a large Italianate barn. Built c. 1880, it now serves as a business.

Glastonbury United Methodist Church (1886)

Glastonbury’s first Methodist parish was formed in 1796 and its first church was erected at Wassuc in 1810. Methodists in South Glastonbury built their own church in 1828. In 1847 the east parish built a new edifice on Manchester Road. After that church was destroyed in a fire, a new East Glastenbury Methodist Church was built in 1886. Now called the Glastonbury United Methodist Church, it is located at 494/508 Manchester Road in East Glastonbury.

1060 Enfield Street, Enfield (1840)

The Greek Revival house at 1060 Enfield Street in Enfield was built c. 1840 (according to the Historic Resources Inventory of Thompsonville) or perhaps as late as 1860.

Samuel Smith House (1695)

Built circa 1695-1700, the Samuel Smith House (pdf), at 82 Plants Dam Road in East Lyme, is notable as an example of a mostly unaltered early colonial-era house. Additions were made in 1735 (when the end-chimney structure became a center-chimney structure with an expansion on the west side and the house was re-framed with a gambrel roof) and 1812 (when a rear ell was added), after which the house remained essentially unaltered. The house still has an eighteenth-century shed (with a lean-to added in the twentieth century), the original well and a c. 1810 outhouse. Also known as the Hurlbut House, the Smith House was built on land owned by Nehemiah Smith, Jr. In 1698, Smith transferred the property to his son, Samuel, who was probably already living on the property (his father lived elsewhere). Recently acquired by the town of East Lyme, the house is being restored by the Friends of the Samuel Smith House to become a museum.

Hubbard-Porteous House (1865)

The house at 242 Broadway in Norwich was built c. 1865. It was once the home of James Lanman Hubbard (1832-1890), a wealthy paper manufacturer and director of the Thames National Bank. His sister Marianna was married to the manufacturer John Fox Slater. James L. Hubbard married Charlotte Peck Learned in 1854. They moved to the house at 242 Broadway in 1869/1870. It was later the home of their son, Charles Learned Hubbard (1855-1918), who was by 1910 the wealthiest man in Norwich. By that time, he had already sold the house at 242 Broadway to John Porteous, who was the president of the Hislop, Porteous and Mitchell dry goods store.

Henry Wood Erving House (1880)

At 821 Prospect Avenue, just across the Hartford city line in West Hartford, is the circa 1880 Queen Anne house first owned by Henry Wood Erving (1851-1941). The house is located next to one built in the same style for Erving’s brother, William Augustus Erving. Henry W. Erving, vice president of the Connecticut River Banking Company, was also an author and antiquarian who gathered one of the first great collections of American furniture. (more…)