Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

B&B

Horace Hayden House (1818)

Near Goodspeed Landing in East Haddam is the house built by Horace Hayden in 1818. Hayden, born in Essex in 1786, was a shipbuilder. According to Paine Family Records, Vol. I (1880), edited by H.D. Paine:

When a young man he was captain of a vessel. In the year 1812, during the war, was wounded by a shot from the enemy, and his vessel burned to the water’s edge, thereby losing all his personal property. He first married Nancy Green, by whom he had three children, Nancy, Nehemiah and Horace. In 1840 he completed a brick store, filled it with goods and placed it in charge of his sons. He was a man beloved by all. The poor always received aid from him, none ever being sent away empty from his door. His funeral was the largest that had ever been attended in East Haddam at that time. He was a member of the Episcopal Church.

The house is now a Bed and Breakfast known as Bishopsgate Inn.

The Deacon Timothy Pratt House (1746)

On Main Street in Old Saybrook is a bed & breakfast called the Deacon Timothy Pratt House. The house was built around 1746 for Timothy Pratt, Sr. and was later occupied by his son Timothy, born in 1748, who was a carpenter and a deacon in the Congregational Church. The house may have served as a private school in the 1790s. It was later known as the Treadway House.

Charles Tibbits House (1891)

The Queen Anne-style Charles Tibbits House was built on North Main Street in Wallingford in 1891 by Gordon W. Hall as a wedding present for his daughter, Georgianna, who had married Charles H. Tibbits. Hall was a founder of the silver manufacturers, Simpson, Hall, Miller and Company. Designed by the New Haven firm of Allen and Tyler, the house was constructed by the C.F. Wooding Company of Wallingford. Sold in 1961 to a doctor who reconfigured the interior, the house has been been restored since the 1990s to be a Bed & Breakfast called the Wallingford Victorian Inn.

Simsbury 1820 House (1820)

The Simsbury 1820 House is an inn which is housed in an elaborate gambrel roofed Federal mansion. The house was built by Elijah Phelps, the son of Maj. Gen. Noah Phelps, who was a hero of the Revolutionary War. Elijah Phelps’s son-in-law, Amos R. Eno, became wealthy by investing the profits of his dry goods business in real estate in New York. He used the 1820 House as a summer residence. His grandson, Gifford Pinchot, a conservationist and governor of Pennsylvania, was born in the house in 1865. In 1884, Amos Eno retreated to the Simsbury House after his son, John C. Eno, embezzled millions from his father’s bank and fled to Canada. In 1890, Amos Eno added a large rear extension to the house, which was later inherited by his daughter, Anoinette Eno Wood, who called the home “Eaglewood,” in reference to her family’s patriotism and her last name. She had the house renovated in the Colonial Revival style. The house remained in the family until 1948, afterwards becoming a restaurant called the Simsbury House. When a developer bought the house and started to auction off its fixtures in the 1960s, the Town of Simsbury decided to purchase it. Little was done to renovate it, however, until in 1985 it was bought and restored by Simsbury House Associates to become an elegant inn.

Daniel Rust House (1731)

The Daniel Rust House, on Main Street in Coventry, was built in 1731. The house is now a Bead and Breakfast. According to its website, the house, “was established in 1800 by the Rose family as a place to rest and refresh yourself before undertaking the remainder of your journey.”

Elias Brown House (1833)

Built in 1833 for the banker, Elias Brown, the bed and breakfast known as the “House of 1833” is a Greek Revival Mansion on North Stonington Road in Old Mystic.

Peck Tavern (1680)

The Peck Tavern, where George Washington once danced, is located where Sill Lane branches off from US 1 in Old Lyme. It may have been built as early as 1680, although the main block achieved its present form by about 1769, when John Peck acquired the tavern. The building served as an inn and tavern from the mid-eighteenth century into the nineteenth and remained in the Peck family until 1904. In the 1930s, the building was used by the Old Lyme Guild, a non-profit arts and crafts organization. In recent years, the house served as a bed & breakfast.