George & Florence Woods House (1820)

The current home of the Trumbull Historical Society is the a house located at 1856 Huntington Turnpike, in the Nichols section of Trumbull. The house was built in 1820 on the property of the Nichols family, land that went back to Abraham Nichols, one of the original founders of the town of Stratford. The last of the family to live in the house was Florence Nichols Woods (died 1973), whose husband, George Woods (died 1972), was president of Bridgeport’s People’s Bank. Their estate was noted for its gardens. The couple left their property to the Nichols Methodist Church. The church did not require the property, so the house and land, known as the Woods Estate, were purchased by the town in 1974. Since 1978 the house has been rented by the Historical Society, while the grounds are now Abraham Nichols Park.

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Lewis-Griswold-Case House (1835)

The older north section of the house at 80 Cherry Brook Road in Canton was built in 1835 by Daniel Lewis. Its next owner was Chauncey Griswold, a schoolteacher who became a maker of medicine. Starting in the 1840s, he produced a popular salve to treat burns and skin ailments. Griswold later lived with his daughter and her husband in the Gardner Mills House in Canton. His heirs continued to make the salve after Griswold’s death and later sold the formula to the Sisson Drug Company Hartford, which produced it until 1955 when it was discontinued due to its high lead content. The house was enlarged in 1893 by William Case, who brought down the ell from another property.

William Smith House (1730)

The William Smith House at 166 Silver Lane in East Hartford is thought to date to as early as 1730, a year before the dirt path in front became town property. Smith had to arrange with his neighbors and the town to get road access to his home. Smith also owned the house next door, at 158 Silver Lane, which he ran as a tavern. Both buildings have been much altered over the years. In the 1920s, the house was the first in East Hartford to be decorated with electric Christmas lights. By the 1930s and 1940s owner Raymond C. Dunn’s elaborate holiday displays attracted people from far and wide, causing traffic jams. A police officer was needed to direct traffic. A contest for the best Christmas display each year was discontinued because he won every year.

Noank Baptist Church (1962)

Located at the highest point in the village of Noank in Groton (18 Cathedral Heights) is the Noank Baptist Church. The congregation dates back to 1843. An early meetinghouse was replaced by a new an Italianate-style church with two spires. The church was destroyed in a fire on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1959. It was rebuilt and the first service in the new building was on Easter Sunday, April 22, 1962, followed by the dedication service and a recital with the new organ on September 16, 1962.

Beleden Gardener’s Cottage (1910)

Partially hidden behind trees at 76 Bellevue in Bristol is a house erected in 1910 as the gardener’s cottage for William Sessions’ Beleden estate. It was built by Lemuel Stewart. The cottage was later the home of Charles Treadway, treasurer of New Deparure Manufacturing Company. He would later become president of the Bristol National Bank and was chairman of the committee that erected Bristol Hospital in response to the influenza epidemic of 1918.

Sylvester Bailey House (1850)

In 1849, Sylvester Bailey purchased the land at 103 Main Street in Middlefield and a year later had built a house. Bailey, a gunsmith, established a nearby pistol factory with his partners, Henry Aston, Ira N. Johnson, John North, Nelson Aston, and Peter Ashton. Bailey died in 1864 and the house passed to his three sons, who sold it out of the family in 1866. Three Polish immigrant families then successively owned the house.