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

The John Johnson House (1840)

The John Johnson House, a large Greek Revival home, was built around 1840 on Broadway in Norwich. Johnson’s father was a president of the Norwich Bank. Later residents included a Dr. Linnell and Henry E. Bourne, who taught history and psychology at the Norwich Academy from 1889 to 1892. Later, Bourne joined his brother and former roommate at Yale, Edward Gaylord Bourne, as a professor of history at Western Reserve University. Henry Eldridge Bourne wrote articles and books, including A History of Mediæval and Modern Europe, The Teaching of History and Civics in the Elementary and the Secondary School, A History of the United States and The Revolutionary Period in Europe. The house, which originally had a center-hall plan, was later subdivided into five apartments.

The Ripley-Woodhull House (1830)

Built around 1830, in the Greek Revival style with some elements of the earlier Federal style, the Ripley-Woodhull House is an imposing residence on Broadway in Norwich. The house was originally occupied by William D. Ripley, a merchant and banker, who may have shared it with the Woodhull family, who owned it later on.

The Thomas Lathrop House (1783)

Thomas Lathrop’s mansion in Norwich was built in 1783 on a hill off Washington Street. The Georgian and Federal style house, possibly with later Greek Revival and Colonial Revival embellishments, also had a garden in the rear and commands an impressive view of the Yantic River below. Thomas Lathrop, together with his cousin, Daniel Lathrop Coit, imported goods from Europe and conducted the apothecary business begun by their uncle, Dr. Daniel Lathrop.

The Jonathan W. Hooker House (1864)

The Italianate style house built around 1864, for Jonathan W. Hooker, who sold real estate, is on Union Street in Norwich. The home’s porch and side wing may be later additions.

Charles A. Atkins House (1900)

The house of Charles A. Atkins was built in 1900 on Kenyon Street in Hartford’s West End. Atkins was a lumber dealer and at one time a potential Republican candidate for governor. In 1973, Carolyn West purchased the house and in 2006 created a website for her Kenyon Street neighborhood which won a 2007 Hartford Preservation Alliance Award. There is also a PDF document at the site with information about the house.

Pine Grove Schoolhouse (1865)

In Avon, on Route 167 (West Avon Road) is a Gothic Revival-style one room school house which served students from 1865 to 1949. Built in 1865 as Avon‘s School Number 7, it was renamed the Pine Grove School in 1927. After 1949, it served as a branch library and a nursery school, eventually being restored by the Avon Historical Society in 1975 and opened as a museum representing an early twentieth century school.

The Bradley Barnes Museum (1836)

What is now the Bradley Barnes Museum, on Main Street in Southington, began as a Greek Revival style hose, built in 1836 for Amon Bradley, the same year he married Sylvia Barnes. Bradley, who had been a Yankee peddler in the south in his youth, invested in real estate and served as postmaster and in the Connecticut General Assembly. The Barnes Homestead remained in the family for three generations and had many additions and expansions, including the c. 1860 attic windows and the c. 1900 Colonial Revival porch. Bradley Henry Barnes, Amon’s grandson, was a successful manufacturer and financier. In 1973, he bequeathed the house and its contents to the town of Southington to be a museum. Numerous antiques were collected by the Barnes family over the years and are on display in the Bradley Barnes Museum, which is located not far from the Southington Green.