Another of the houses built by Gurdon Smith on Pratt Street in Essex is this one dating to 1834. The house was later owned by Richard Sill Hayden and passed to his son, Gilbert Burnet Hayden, who was a lighthouse keeper in Essex and died in 1929.
A Federal-style house, built by Gurdon Smith on Pratt Street in Essex in 1818, is one of several he built on the street. Smith was one of the developers of Pratt (then called New) Street, which was opened after the land north of Main Street, long owned by the Lay family, became available. The street runs between the original locations of Essex’s two successive ropewalks. Smith was a part-owner of the second ropewalk, which was located just north of Pratt Street.
A beam in the attic of the Messenger House, 667 Cherry Brook Road in Canton, is inscribed with the words: “RAISED 1785 JUNE 20 MONDAY.” In the days when stagecoach used to pass by the house, it was used as an inn. Also, at one time, there was an apple orchard and cider mill on the property. Miles Messenger owned the house in the mid-twentieth century and, after the steeple of the Old North Church in Boston blew down during Hurricane Carol in 1954, Mr. Messenger gave a white oak from his farm to help rebuild it.
The Stone House in Deep River (which was known as Saybrook until 1947) was built in 1840 by Deacon Ezra Southworth for he and his new wife, Eunice Post Southworth. The house was built using stone quarried on the property. The original flat tin roof was later replaced by a gabled roof. A rear addition was constructed in 1881, just before the marriage of the Southworth’s son, Ezra Job Birney Southworth, to Fanny Shortland of Chester. The wraparound porch was added to the house in 1898. Deacon Ezra’s granddaughter, Ada Southworth Munson, who died in 1946, bequeathed the property to the Deep River Historical Society. It is now a house museum open to the public. On the property, there is also a late nineteenth century barn (now called the carriage house) and a section from an old bleach house, owned by Pratt, Read & Co., which was used for whitening ivory. At one time, Pratt Read in Deep River and Comstock, Cheney & Co. in Ivoryton, dominated the ivory products manufacturing industry in the U.S.
Historically associated with Josiah Hotchkiss, a tavern-keeper in Cheshire, the house at 589 South Main Street is believed to have been built by him around 1744. The building’s lack of a protruding summer beam, however, might suggest a later date of construction.
Timothy Starkey, Jr.’s house in Essex was built in 1800, when he leased land from Samuel Lay to build his home on the corner of Main Street and Ferry Street (the latter street being laid out in the 1820s, after the house was constructed). Starkey later bought the land and property extending along Main Street to the wharf, developed Pratt Street and was involved in various business ventures. Timothy Starkey married his cousin, Mary Ann Hayden, a daughter of Uriah Hayden. Starkey owned the Hayden-Starkey Store with his brothers-in-law, Samuel Hayden and Ebenezer Hayden II. Timothy’s brother, Felix Starkey, lived next door to him and married Esther Hayden, who was also a daughter of Uriah Hayden. The house later passed to Timothy’s daughter, Phoebe, who had married William S. Hayden. The house remained in the family until 1974 and is is now used for businesses.
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Joseph Arnold, not to be confused with the Joseph Arnold who lived in the Thankful Arnold House (although both men were descendants of the original Haddam proprietor, Joseph Arnold), built his home in the center of Haddam around 1765. Joseph’s son, Simon Arnold (1778-1867), occupied the house after his 1804 marriage to Alice Smith (1778-1834). The home was also occupied, from 1838 until his death in 1869, by Samuel Arnold, the son of Joseph and Thankful Arnold. Samuel Arnold served as a US Congressman from 1857 to 1859. The house, which was significantly altered in the nineteenth century but restored in the twentieth century, remained in the Arnold family until 1967.
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