Captain James Francis, a master builder, constructed this house for himself on Hartford Avenue in Wethersfield in 1793. In 1815, he expanded the original 1 1/2-story building with a gambrel roof to two stories with a gable roof. Capt. Francis also built a number of other brick houses in Wethersfield during this period. The front and side porches were added by his granddaughter, Jane Francis, in the nineteenth century. The house is currently owned by the Wethersfield Historical Society.
Built on South Main Street in West Hartford in the early 1820s for a farmer named Samuel Millard. This brick house has semi-circular fanlights, typical of the Federal style, and a prominent wood cross-gable extending to the side elevations.
Built on Forest Street in Hartford’s Nook Farm neighborhood in 1871 for a lawyer named Franklin Chamberlin, this house was bought two years later by Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. She lived here with her husband, Calvin Stowe (a retired minister and professor) and two unmarried twin daughters, Hatty and Eliza. In 1878 she completed her last novel Poganuc People, based on her early years growing up in Litchfield. After Stowe died in 1896, the twins sold the house and it was later bought, in 1927, by Katharine Seymour Day (Stowe’s great-niece and the granddaughter of Isabella Beecher Hooker), who left it to become a museum. The house was restored in the 1960s and is open to the public as part of the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center.
Preserved by the Griswold Family Association on Garden Street in Wethersfield, this classic saltbox house was built in 1730. The earlier rear section dates back to 1680.
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Built in 1846 in Woodstock as a summer home for Henry Chandler Bowen. He had grown up in the town, but later went to Brooklyn, NY and became a wealthy dry goods merchant. He was also an abolitionist and Republican, who hosted famous Fourth of July celebrations on his property, which included such guests as Ulysses S. Grant (who had to endure Bowen’s teetotaling). The Gothic Revival house and the grounds, which include a boxwood garden, reflect the ideas of Andrew Jackson Downing (as presented in such books as The Architecture of Country Houses) on rural dwellings and country landscaping. The house is now a museum administered by Historic New England.
Built for Oliver Wolcott, Sr. in 1754 on South Street in Litchfield, this is the town’s oldest surviving Georgian-style house. During the Revolutionary War, Wolcott was a member of the Continental Congress and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He later served as Governor of Connecticut (1796-1797). The Colonial Revival wing was added in the 1890s.
Built in 1813 for Aaron Bissell (1758-1831) is the Federal (or Adam) style house at 1891 Main Street in East Windsor Hill (now in South Windsor). A three-story ell was added to the house in 1904. Aaron Bissell owned Bissell ‘s Tavern, as well as a store and post office, and was involved in farming and merchant ventures. Next door, to the north, stands a similar house, built in 1812 for Bissell’s partner and son-in-law, Eli Haskell.
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