Celanese House (1959)

The Celanese House, on Oenoeke Ridge Road in New Canaan, was commissioned by the the Celanese Corporation, a chemical manufacturer, as a showplace for their products. Built in 1959, the house was designed by Edward Durell Stone (corporation executives would only consider Stone or Frank Lloyd Wright for the commission). The house, screened by its distinctive latticework, is lit by twelve prominent pyramidal skylights. The building received national press attention when it was completed. After Celanease’s 1959 promotional campaign ended, this model house was sold as a private residence. In 1960, the house was purchased by Frederick Wilcox, an inventor. He died in 1996 and his wife, Velma Willcox, continued in residence until her death in 2005. Between 2006 and 2007, new owner Bruce Capra undertook an extensive restoration of the house, which was then put on the market.

James Wadsworth House (1708)

James Wadsworth (1675-1756) was a lawyer from Farmington, who moved to Durham in 1707 with his wife, Ruth Noyes. Wadsworth, who became colonel of the Tenth Regiment of militia, also served as Town Clerk, Justice of the Peace, Speaker of House of the Colonial Assembly and Judge of the Superior Court. Wadsworth’s grandson later held the same offices: the Wadsworth family dominated local politics for eighty years. Col. Wadsworth’s house in Durham began as a single-story center-chimney house, built in 1708, and was expanded to two stories between 1720 and 1750.

Hanford-Silliman House (1764)

Stephen Hanford was a weaver and New Canaan’s first licensed tavern keeper. In 1764, he moved into a new house with his new wife, Jemima. The house was both his home and an “ordinary,” or inn and tavern. After his wife died in 1784, Hanford sold the house to Elisha Leeds, who gave it to his daughter Martha, and her husband, Joseph Silliman, as a wedding present. The Hanford-Silliman House remained in the Silliman family into the 1920s. Acquired by the New Canaan Historical Society in 1957, it now one of their museum properties.

The Anderson House (1702)

The Anderson House, at 1380 Enfield Street in Enfield, was built in 1702 by original settlers of the town. Later in the eighteenth century, the house was owned by Ephraim Pease, grandson of Deacon Robert Pease, one of the two founders of Enfield, who came from Salem, Massachusetts. Ephraim Pease was a merchant, slave owner and representative in the General Assembly. It’s possible that George Washington once slept in the house, which also held Hessian prisoners during the Revolutionary War. The house was later in a dilapidated condition but was eventually restored.

The Hartung-Trumbull House (1835)

Possibly built by Edwin Fitch, the Hartung-Trumbull House in Mansfield Center dates to around 1835. John Hartung, wagon-maker and town postmaster, owned the property until 1845. From 1859 to 1894, it was the home of Eunice M. Swift Trumbull, wife of William Trumbull. The Catalog of the Officers and Students of Talladega College, published in 1905, lists “The Eunice M. Swift Trumbull Scholarship of $500, established in 1895, by devise of Mrs. Trumbull, of Mansfield, Conn.” Talladega College, in Talladega, Alabama, is that state’s oldest historically black private liberal arts college, founded in 1867.