The Roberts Homestead is an 1822 brick house, located across from the Town Green in Bloomfield. It was built by Lemuel Roberts. Later in the nineteenth century, owner Lester A. Roberts, who gave land to add to the Town Green, was described as “a man of unusually wide intelligence and some literary note,” who “is now a resident of Brooklyn, but still makes Bloomfield his summer home.”
In the late nineteenth century, Litchfield became a showplace for the Colonial Revival movement. Old houses were restored and new ones constructed in the Colonial Revival style. One such home is the Charles Deming House on North Street, built in 1900. The architect was E. K. Rossiter and the house was built for Charles Deming, a grandson of Julius Deming, whose house is also on North Street.
For Thanksgiving, we focus on the First Congregational Church in Bloomfield. Originally established as the parish of Wintonbury, the first meetinghouse was erected in 1737 and the first official gathering was in 1738. A second meetinghouse was built in 1801 and served for 56 years before being moved aside for the current church building, built in 1858. Wintonbury had by then became the Town of Bloomfield in 1835. The church’s steeple blew down in 1862 and was replaced with a sturdier one that includes a clock.
The oldest parts of the house of Captain John Latimer, on Main Street near Wethersfield Cove, date to around 1690. The house is right next door to the Captain Samuel Latimer House. The John Latimer House is currently for sale.
(more…)
The Thomas Hart Hooker House, on Main Street in Farmington, was built in 1770 by Judah Woodruff for Hooker, a descendant of Thomas Hooker and of Stephen Hart, one of the founders of Farmington. Hooker had married Sarah Whitman Hooker in 1769 and in 1773 they moved to what is now West Hartford. The house was later owned by Samuel Deming, an abolitionist who used his home as a stop on the Underground Railroad. Deming also joined with Austin Williams and John Treadwell Norton in bringing the Africans from the Amistad to Farmington in 1841. The house, now owned by Miss Porter’s School, is on the Connecticut Freedom Trail.
The oldest house in Farmington was built by Samuel Steele, a farmer who served as Deputy in the General Court and lieutenant in the militia. Steele‘s wife, Mary Boosey, had inherited property in Wethersfield and the family moved there in 1678. After Samuel’s death in 1685, Mary returned to live in the house in Farmington. The house was owned by the Steele family until 1773, when it was sold to Isaac Gleason (the current sign on the house identifies it as the Gleason House). In 1843, Dr. Chauncey Brown moved the house back from Main Street and turned it to face south with its gable end towards the street. It was then used as a barn, but now has apartments. The building has been owned by the same family since 1920.
The Valley House in Collinsville (in Canton) was built in 1868 as a hotel by the Collins Company. Shops once occupied the ground floor. Today, the building has been converted into condominiums. The Second Empire style was very popular at the time of the hotel’s construction.
You must be logged in to post a comment.