9 South Canterbury Road, Canterbury (1820)

The Federal-style house at 9 South Canterbury Road was built c.1820 and has a porch on the front and side that was added later. In the 1850s, the house was owned by Marvin H. Sanger, a merchant, banker and politician. According to the Illustrated Popular Biography of Connecticut (1891):

Marvin Hutchins Sanger was born in Brooklyn, in Windham county, April 12, 1827. In his infancy his parents removed to Canterbury, where he was educated in the public schools, and at Bacon Academy in Colchester, and was kept at home assisting his father upon the farm until he reached the age of eighteen. Then followed two years of experience in a country store as clerk, which served as a preparation for the business of general merchandizing which he followed in Canterbury for twenty years, from 1849 to 1869 […] November 14, 1855, he was married to Miss Mary J. Bacon, daughter of the late Benjamin Bacon of Plainfield. They have had two children, both daughters. Mr. Sanger has been a lifelong democrat […] He has long been a justice of the peace and has thus been much occupied in the trial of criminal cases. He was elected town clerk and treasurer in 1852, and has been re-elected ever since with the exception of two years. He has been judge of probate for about a quarter of a century, and was postmaster at Canterbury for fifteen years under various presidential administrations. He has been on the board of directors of the Brooklyn Savings Bank, and now for several years has been its president. He represented Canterbury in the state legislature in 1857, 1860, 1882, 1887, and 1889; was secretary of state for four successive years, from 1873 to 1877 and was democratic candidate for state treasurer in the autumn of 1890, receiving an apparent majority of all the votes cast, but failing to receive official recognition from the house of representatives at its session the following January, owing to a disagreement between the two branches of the legislature as to the accuracy or validity of the returns, –as was the case with all the candidates on the democratic state ticket, with the exception of the comptroller.

In the 1920s, the barn to the rear of the house was used by Hiram Hawes as a flyfishing-rod factory.

Skinner-Hammond House (1790)

At 765 Hartford Turnpike in Vernon Center is the impressive Federal-style Skinner-Hammond House, built around 1786-1790 by Reuben Skinner. It may have been the work of master builder Elisha Scott or one of his apprentices. Scott was born in Tolland and later lived in Poultney, Vermont. At one time, the house served as a tavern and public meeting place called Skinner’s Inn. The house was later owned by the Hammond family, who were pioneers establishing nearby Rockville‘s woolen industry in the mid-nineteenth century. Alterations were made to the house c.1830 and c.1890.

Levi B. Frost House (1836)

According to tradition, Asa Barnes established a tavern in his home in the Marion area of Southington in 1765, the same year he married Phebe Adkins. In 1781, when French troops under the comte de Rochambeau were marching through Connecticut on their way south, the eighth campsite of their march was established nearby on French Hill. During the four nights of the encampment, Rochambeau and his officers were entertained by Barnes in the tavern. They would stop there again during their return march, on October 27, 1782. Barnes continued to live in his tavern/house until his death in 1819. His son, Philo Barnes, leased the home to Micah Rugg and Levi B. Frost, pioneers in Southington’s bolt manufacturing industry. Frost, a blacksmith, purchased the property in 1820. The original building burned in a fire in 1836 and Frost rebuilt his house in the Greek Revival style. While the Frost House, which is located at 1089 Marion Avenue, features the classic hallmarks of that style of architecture, it is unusually long at 50 feet. This may be due to the house being constructed on the foundations (and perhaps even incorporating the original framework) of the original eighteenth-century tavern.

Trinity Episcopal Church, Tariffville (1872)

Trinity Episcopal Church in Tariffville, Simsbury was founded in 1848 and began holding worship services in Mitchelson Hall on Elm Street in Tariffville. Trinity purchased a former Presbyterian Church in 1856, but this building was seized to make way for railroad tracks in 1871. The present church, designed by Henry C. Dudley, was constructed on Church Street in 1872-1873. A parish house was built behind the church in 1932 and a modern classroom and office wing was added in 1968.

John Warburton House (1803)

The first house to built in what would become the manufacturing village of Talcottville in Vernon was the brick Federal-style house of John Warburton, constructed in 1803. Warburton was a skilled mechanic who emigrated from England in 1792. He introduced mechanized cotton spinning to Connecticut in 1795, creating a water-powered cotton mill while he was working for the Pitkin family of East Hartford. In 1802, he left the Pitkins and, with his partner Daniel Fuller, built the first cotton-spinning mill on the Tankerhoosen River in Vernon (then called North Bolton). The Warburton House still stands at 19 Main Street in Talcottville, next to the old dam and mill pond. The house has notable brick fringe work found only on its north-facing corner. A second and grander Warburton House, known as the “Four Chimney House,” once stood nearby, but no longer survives.

James Warner House (1760)

The house at 447 Old Main Street in Rocky Hill was built around 1760 and was home to the Deming family. The covered Federal-style front doorway portico was added to the house around 1800. The property was later owned by members of the Merriam family. Around 1863, James Warner acquired the house, which was valued at $10,000 in the 1860 census. The property continued to be farmed by members of the Warner family over several generations. It was passed down to Carl Warner, an optician who later retired to St. Petersburg, Florida, where he died in 1967. Carl Warner also owned the house next door, which was built in 1773 and later demolished. The current owners of the James Warner House purchased it in October 2011 and have a blog called Confessions of An Antique Home in which they relate their adventures in owning a historic house.