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

David Nevins House (1746)

Recent (2024) photo of the house taken by the current owner.

The 1746 house of David Nevins, a merchant originally from Nova Scotia who settled in Canterbury, is located across from the Canterbury Green in the Canterbury Center Historic District. The house was built the same year that Nevins married Mary Lathrop, the daughter of Col. Simon Lathrop of Norwich. Nevins died in 1758, in circumstances described in the History of Norwich (1866), by Frances Manwaring Caulkins:

It was while engaged in repairing a bridge over the Quinebaug, between Canterbury and Plainfield, which had been partially destroyed in a severe freshet, that the first David Nevins of Connecticut lost his life. He was standing on one of the cross beams of the bridge, giving directions to the workmen, and had his watch in his hand, which he had just taken out to see the time, when, losing his balance, he fell into the swollen stream, was swept down by the current, and drowned before he could be rescued.

Nevins’ son, also named David, fought in the Revolutionary War. At different times, between 1842 and 1975, the house was used as a Parsonage for the nearby First Congregational Church. In the twentieth century, the house has undergone restoration, including the restoration of the chimney using stones found in the basement of the house.

This is an earlier photo of the house that initially appeared at the top of this post.

The Daniel Judd House (1875)

The Daniel Judd House is a c. 1875 Gothic Revival cottage with a later, Colonial Revival-style porch, at 253 West Main Street in Cheshire. Judd was an undertaker and carpenter who may have crafted the house’s woodwork himself. This includes the decoratively carved barge boards which are typical of the Gothic Revival style.

Laura Huntington House (1850)

Built in 1850 in Windham Center, the home of Miss Laura Huntington is an excellent example of the Italianate style.

Martha A. Parsons House (1782)

The Martha A. Parsons House, in Enfield, was built in 1792 by John Meacham on property that was initially intended for use by ministers (parsons). In 1800, the house was purchased by John Ingraham, a retired Saybrook sea captain, who placed George Washington Memorial wallpaper in the front hall. In 1906, Juliaette Parsons, the widow of Ingraham’s great-grandson, moved in with her three daughters. One of them, Martha A. Parsons, entered the world of business, eventually becoming secretary of the Landers, Frary & Clark of New Britain in 1912. After a fifty year career, she retired to Enfield to live with her sisters. She died in 1962 and the home was bequeathed to the Enfield Historical Society, which operates it as the Martha A. Parsons Museum.

Captain John Clark House (1802)

Built around 1802 as an addition or replacement for an earlier home on the site, the house of Captain John Clark, on South Canterbury Road in Canterbury is, like the Prudence Crandall House, a prime example of the “Canterbury Style,” a regional development of the Georgian and Federal styles. Both of these houses are believed to have been designed by the same builder: Thomas Gibbs of Plainfield.

Prudence Crandall House (1805)

What is today known as the Prudence Crandall House, in Canterbury, was originally built around 1805 for Luther Paine by the architect, Thomas Gibbs. The house, also known as the Elisha Payne House, was built in the “Canterbury type” of the Federal style, so named because there are several similar houses in town. Distinctive features of the Canterbury Style include having a gable atop a hipped roof with twin chimneys and a complex two-and-a-half story entrance composition with a triangular pediment above a Gothic-influenced Palladian window above an elaborate doorway. In 1831, the house became a school for girls, run by Prudence Crandall of Rhode Island, who had been invited by Canterbury residents to head the school. When Crandall accepted Sarah Harris, the daughter of a free African American farmer, to the school, many townspeople objected and began to remove their daughters from the school. In response, Crandall decided attract students from free black communities in New England to her school, who could be trained as teachers. In 1833, the state passed a “Black Law” making it illegal for the school to operate. Crandall was arrested, spent a night in jail, and faced various charges until her case was dismissed in 1834. A dissatisfied mob then attacked the school, which was forced to close. Crandall soon married and left Connecticut. The “Black Law” was repealed in 1838 and years later, in 1886 the Connecticut legislature honored Crandall with an annual pension. She was designated the official state heroine of Connecticut in 1995 and her former house and school is now the Prudence Crandall Museum, operated by the state.

Levi Lincoln Felt House (1879)

The Levi Lincoln Felt House, on Jefferson Street in Hartford, was built in 1879 and is transitional in architectural style between the Gothic Revival and Queen Anne. The chimney has a High Victorian Gothic element in its polychromatic terra-cotta tiles. Felt was born in New York City in 1849 and later settled in Hartford, working after 1864 for the Travelers Insurance Company and becoming its cashier/comptroller. Felt was also interested in his family’s genealogy, conceiving and doing preliminary work for The Felt Genealogy (1893) and joining the Connecticut Historical Society.