Marcellus B. Willcox House (1865)

The house at 133 Main Street in Southington was built in 1865 for Julius N. Savage, who was in the carriage bolt manufacturing business. It was later owned by James F. Pratt, a merchant who organized the Southington National Bank. The house is named for Marcellus B. Willcox, (1844-1918), president of the Southington National Bank and of Peck, Stowe & Wilcox, a hardware manufacturing company based in Southington. The Willcox House is an excellent example of the Stick style, displaying “stickwork” (decorative half-timbering on the exterior walls), decorative brackets and trussing on the gables.

Jonathan Root House (1720)

The oldest house in Southington is the Jonathan Root House at 140-142 N Main Street. It was built in 1720 and Jonathan Root later kept a tavern in the house. When Southington became a town in 1779, Root was chosen as one of the First Selectmen. He was also a member of the Committee of Correspondence during the Revolutionary War. According to local tradition, George Washington stopped at the tavern in 1780. Extensive additions were later made to the house and the rear roof slope was raised in 1942, but these changes have now all been removed. The house, which today is used as lawyers’ offices, no longer has its original central chimney.

Josiah Cowles House (1750)

Captain Josiah Cowles was one of the earliest settlers of Southington. Born in Farmington in 1713, he settled in Plantsville around 1740, serving as a justice of the peace and a captain in the local militia. In 1774, he served on a committee to collect supplies for the relief of the people of Boston. He died in 1793 and is buried in Quinnipiac Cemetery. His house, at 184 Marion Avenue in Plantsville in Southington, was most likely built around 1750, two years after Capt. Cowles married his second wife. The house, which is now a bed & breakfast, has a large rear addition dating to 1988.

Melancthon W. Jacobus House (1908)

The Melancthon W. Jacobus House is a 1908 Tudor Revival mansion designed by Brocklesby & Smith and located at 39 Woodland Street in Hartford. Melancthon W. Jacobus, Jr. (1855-1957) was dean of the Hartford Theological Seminary and, as Hosmer Professor of New Testament Exegesis, delivered his Inaugural Address, entitled “The Evolution of New Testament Criticism and the Consequent Outlook for To-day,” on October 5, 1892. His father, Melancthon W. Jacobus, Jr. (1816-1876), was a Presbyterian minister and writer and his son, Melancthon W. “Chick” Jacobus (1907-1984) was an English teacher and soccer coach at Kingswood-Oxford School and an author of books on Connecticut River Valley steamboats and Connecticut railroads. The family sold the house during the Great Depression to the Hartford College of Insurance. Today the house is the offices of the Connecticut State University System.

George Palmer House (1840)

The house at 283 Brewster Street in Black Rock, Bridgeport was built in 1840 for George Palmer, an oysterman. The house’s unusually high basement may have been used to store oysters for shipment. In 1850 the house was bought by Daniel Golding, who managed the mills at Ash Creek. He changed his name to Goldin for business reasons because the “g” at the end of his name wouldn’t fit on the barrels of flower that he produced. The house was in the Brady family from 1860 to 1950.