Francis W. Lewis House (1880)

The Francis W. Lewis House is a three-story (with porches on the first two floors) Italianate house at 153 N Main Street in Southington. It has been dated to around 1880, but was apparently converted from a preexisting building dating to 1800. Timlow’s Ecclesiastical and Other Sketches of Southington, Conn. (1875) lists a Francis W. Lewis:

son of Chauncey (184), b. Jan. 21, 1816; m. Dec. 7, 1840, Sarah C. Beckley, daughter of Moses W. and Mary Berkley. He lives in the village of Southington, and has a boot and shoe store.

Captain Samuel Woodruff House (1840)

Captain Samuel Woodruff of Southington was a descendant of Samuel Woodruff, the town’s first colonial settler. As described in Heman Timlow’s Ecclesiastical and Other Sketches of Southington, Conn. (1875):

Capt. Samuel S. Woodbuff, son of Robert, b. Nov. 12, 1811; m. June 8, 1834, Emeline, daughter of Wooster Neal. He lives on the place owned by his father and grandfather. During the last war he was conspicuous for the promptness with which he entered the service, and the gallantry that he displayed during his entire military career. He led the Southington company through the period of their enlistment. In the town he is held in high repute as a man of the most incorruptible integrity. He is a carpenter by trade.

After the war, Capt. Woodruff ran a carriage business connected to his son Adna Neal Woodruff’s contracting business on Liberty Street. Capt. Woodruff and his wife both died in 1882. His house, built around 1840, is at 23 Old State Road in Southington. Starting in 1915, the Murawski family owned the property and built up a large farm which they operated into the late 1960s. The house is notable among Greek Revival houses in in Southington for its pyramidal roof, center chimney and rural location.

William H. and Lucretia Stow Cummings House (1890)

The William Cummings House is a Queen Anne-style mansion, built c. 1890 at 28 Elm Street in the Plantsville section of Southington. In 1876, industrialist William H. Cummings married Lucretia Amelia Stow Cummings. She was born in Southington in 1851 and graduated from Vassar in 1874, where she had studied astronomy. Lucretia Stow Cummings served as head of Connecticut’s Public Health Nursing Association, working to reduce infant mortality rates, and led a campaign to improve rural schools in the state. Their grandson is Abbott Lowell Cummings, a noted architectural historian.

Barnes-Frost House (1795)

Built in 1795, probably by Pitt Cowles, the house at 1177 Marion Avenue in Southington, known as the Barnes-Frost House, was purchased in 1810 by Philo Barnes, a large landowner. His son, Seth E. Barnes, traveled to the California gold fields in the 1840s. In 1863, during the Civil War, Seth E. Barnes died in Charleston, South Carolina as a prisoner of war. His widow Lucinda, brought up her grandson, Edwin Seth Todd, who became General Manager of Clark Brothers Bolt Company. Levi D. Frost, of the Marion bolt manufacturing company, bought the house in 1883 and it remained in his family until 1916. The house features a repeating diamond and ellipse pattern running above the windows, doors and roof, an example of Federal-style detailing that may have been added later.

Dr. J. Porter House (1754)

This is the start of Southington Week!!! The Dr. J. Porter House is a colonial residence at 391 Belleview Avenue in Southington. It may have been built as early as 1728 and was probably already standing in 1754, when Dr. Joshua Porter brought his new wife home to the house. According to Heman Timlow’s Ecclesiastical and Other Sketches of Southington, Conn. (1875), Dr. Porter

was the third resident physician [in Southington], although some of his descendants dispute that he ever practiced at all. But he came of a medical family, his father and grandfather both belonging to the profession. He probably practiced at first, but, like Dr. Skilton, he gave his attention more to business, and finally became the largest landholder in the town. Mr. Curtiss, in recording his marriage, gives him the title of doctor, so that he had it as early as 1754, the date of his marriage. He lived on the place now occupied by Joseph P. Piatt. It is said that he was the largest slaveholder that ever lived in town. He died February 20, 1803, aged eighty-five.

The same source notes that he was married twice: “Mercy, his wife, died March 14, 1796, in her 76th year, when he married (2) June 12, 1797, Mabel Pardee, as some suppose a sister or cousin of his first wife.” He also had a daughter named Mercy who married Samuel Pardee in 1777. Timlow notes that Pardee “removed to the old homestead of his father-in-law, Dr. Joshua Porter, where Joseph P. Piatt now lives. This place his wife inherited in part, and he appears to have bought the remainder.” There are four barns behind the house on this historic farm property.

United Churches of Durham (1847)

Happy Easter!!! The original meeting house of Durham’s Congregational church stood on the northeast corner of the town Green from 1736 to 1835. When it was decided to replace the old building, there was a struggle in town between those to the south, who wanted the new church to be built near the Green, and those to the north, who wanted it to be built north of Allyn Brook. It was eventually built near the Green, but those living south of Allyn Brook made a larger contribution to its construction. On Thanksgiving Day, 1844, the new building burned down (a suspected case of arson). Those on the north side now succeeded in having the new church built on their side of the brook while south siders paid nothing and were even compensated for their expense for the previous building. The new North Congregational Church was dedicated in June, 1847, but the dispute was not over: that same year 67 members left the church and formed a separate South Congregational Church. The two congregations united again in 1886 and the South Church became Durham’s Town Hall. In 1941 the Congregational and Methodist Churches joined to form the United Churches of Durham.