The 1800 Benton-Hale House, on Main Street in Glastonbury, was built by Samuel Benton when he married Fanny Talcott. In 1838, the house was acquired by Frary Hale, “said to have been the first woolen manufacturer in Connecticut; he lived 90 years.” He also served as town clerk, 1848-1850. The house’s rear ell may be an earlier structure.
The 1901 Henry R. Hovey House, on Prospect Avenue in Hartford, is a Colonial Revival structure, featuring Georgian and Federal elements. Hovey was an employee of the Aetna Life Insurance Company.
North of the house of William Noyes, Jr. (now known as the Florence Griswold House), on Lyme street in Old Lyme, is the house built in 1756 for his father, Judge William Noyes. Judge Noyes was himself the grandson of Rev. Moses Noyes, Lyme’s first minister. Originally located right next to the road, the house was moved back and restored by the Hodgson family around 1900 in keeping with the ethos of the Colonial Revival. The house’s front portico and end porches are also twentieth century additions. In the 1930’s, the house was owned by a widow, Henrietta Greenleaf Lindsay, who followed the advice of her friend, the actress Elsie Ferguson, in converting the house into an inn. It was named the Bee and Thistle Inn to honor her, as those are the symbols of the Ferguson Clan in Scotland. The Inn is still in operation today.
Jedediah and Ebenezer Huntington were brothers who served in the Revolutionary War. Sons of General Jabez Huntington, they successively occupied a house, built in 1765, on East Town Street in Norwich. Jedediah Huntington fought at Bunker Hill and eventually became a general. He married Faith Trumbull, the daughter of Governor Jonathan Trumbull. After the war, He became the Collector of Customs at New London and moved there. His brother, Ebenezer Huntington, then lived in the Norwich House from 1789. Ebenezer had also served in the war and later served as a Federalist Congressman in the House of Representatives. The semicircular window over the door and keystones over the first floor windows were later Federal style additions to the house.
Hezekiah Thompson, born in New Haven in 1735, decided to set aside his occupation as a saddler at the age of 30 and began to study the law. In 1760, he built a house in Woodbury, where he was one of the town’s first lawyers, continuing his practice until 1795. Thompson also served in the State Assembly. The house was owned by the Averill family in the nineteenth century and was known as the Averill Mansion. The Hezekiah Thompson House and Garden were restored in 1983 and again in 2007. Today the home houses an antiques dealership (specializing in Swedish antiques), but is currently for sale.
The house of merchant Thomas Coit, on Broadway in Norwich, was built in 1782 in a grand Georgian style, although some of the building’s elaborate decoration was added later under the influence of the Colonial Revival movement. Coit was a partner in a privateering firm during the Revolutionary War and in 1784 was Collector of Revenue in Norwich, serving under Christopher Leffingwell, from whom he had purchased the land to build his house. In 1798, he moved to Canterbury and the house was sold to Deacon Jabez Huntington. Records show that both of these first two residents of the house were slave owners.
The building known as the Revolutionary War Office, in Lebanon, was originally built around 1727 for Joseph Trumbull, and has been moved several times over the years to different sites on the town green. At the start of the Revolutionary War, it was located closer to Jonathan Trumbull’s house and was serving as a store and office for his merchant business. Trumbull was Governor of Connecticut during the war and he used the office to plan the state’s defense with the Council of Safety from 1775-1784. Notable figures who conferred with Trumbull in the office include George Washington, Henry Knox and Israel Putnam, as well as Rochambeau and Lafayette. In 1891, the building was acquired by the Connecticut Sons of the American Revolution and restored. A bronze tablet was placed in 1896. Today it is open to the public as a museum.
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