Built in 1740 and later moved to its current location, on Main Street in Wethersfield, from a location nearer to the Meeting House, the John Loveland House may have originally been a Sabbath House. These were used by families who traveled a distance to attend church but could not go home easily for a break between services.
Built around 1785 on the Boston Post Road in Madison, the Allis-Bushnell House was at one time the home of Cornelius Scranton Bushnell, a railroad executive and shipbuilder, who played an important role in the building of the Civil War ironclad, the U.S.S. Monitor. Later he was a founder of the Union Pacific Railway. In the early twentieth century, the house was the home and office of Dr. Milo Rindye. It is currently the home of the Madison Historical Society.
In 1757, David Bissell Jr. sold part of his land to Jeremiah Ballard, a barber, who built a shop on Main Street, in East Windsor Hill. The remainder of this shop is the present long ell of the East Windsor Hill Post Office. In 1759, Bissell gave the rest of his land to his son, David Bissell III, who later attached a shop/storehouse to Ballard’s shop. This is the gambrel-roofed warehouse with overhead doorway that now houses the Post Office. Different owners divided the structure for various businesses selling dry goods and groceries over the following years, well into the twentieth century. It also served as a post office, receiving its first government post rider in 1783. It is the oldest continuously operated post office in the country.
Built sometime between 1847 and 1855 on South Main Street in West Hartford. Like the similarly Greek Revival-style Stephen Willard House in Wethersfield, it features a gable-end facing the street and a side entrance. The round-headed window in the gable is an Italianate, rather than a Greek Revival feature. Substantial additions on the rear of the house project on either side, the one on the north elevation creating a tri-gable L-shape. The house was probably built by George Buckley, who sold his farm to Charles Coffing in 1863.
Built in 1837, the Stephen Willard House, on Broad Street Green in Wethersfield, followed the Greek Revival style of the time by having its gable-end face the street. This was to emulate the facade of a classical Greek temple. Unlike Greek Revival houses in which the front door was also on the facade, such as the Chester Bulkeley House (also in Wethersfield), the Willard House features a side entrance.
Stephen F. Willard was a later owner of the house. He began as a traveling salesman for the seed company Comstock, Ferre & Co., eventually becoming its president. He was also a founder of the American Seed Trade Association and the Wethersfield Village Improvement Association.
Built around 1759 for the merchant, Ezekiel Williams, on Broad Street in Wethersfield. Williams was the sheriff of Hartford County from 1767 to 1789 and, during the Revolutionary War, he served as a member of the Committee of the Pay Table and Deputy Commissary General of Prisoners in Connecticut. Ezekiel Williams‘ son, Ezekiel, married a daughter of Oliver Ellsworth.
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Built in 1818 on Main Street in Wethersfield for Capt. Jesse Goodrich, a ship owner and merchant. Each gable-end of the house features an oval window, with a chimney right behind it. The rear addition to this Federal style house dates to the 1870s.
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