gambrel

Gay Manse (1742)

Built in 1742 on North Main Street in Suffield for the Reverend Ebenezer Gay, who was ordained as minister of the Congregational church that same year. The “Gay Manse” is notable as one of the earliest gambrel-roofed houses in New England. It is also one of the oldest houses in Suffield and features a classic Connecticut River Valley doorway. When Gay died in 1796, he was succeeded by his son. Rev. Ebenezer Gay, Jr. served until his death in 1837 and also ran a school in one room of the manse, while housing the town library in another. Today the house is owned by Suffield Academy.

Rev. James Lockwood House (1767)

Rev. James Lockwood, Wethersfield’s Congregational minister from 1738-1772, had turned down the presidencies of Yale and Princeton to stay in town. In gratitude, members of the congregation of First Church donated the money, materials and labor to build this center-chimney, gambrel-roofed house on Main Street in 1767. It was therefore not a parsonage, but instead a personal gift to the pastor. It currently serves as a rectory for neighboring Trinity Episcopal Church.

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Phelps-Hatheway House (1761)

The earliest part of the house was the main block with center-chimney, built around 1761-1767 for merchant Shem Burbank. In 1788, the house was purchased by the merchant, and extensive land owner, Oliver Phelps, who altered the roof to a gambrel style and added other features of the fashionable Georgian style. In 1794, he further altered the house by adding a new wing in the Federal style. The main architect of the addition was Thomas Hayden of Windsor. A young Asher Benjamin, later to become one of the most important architects of the Federal period, was one of the workers on the new wing and carved the Ionic capitals of the wing’s entryway. The interior of the Federal wing is notable for its surviving original French-made wallpaper. When Phelps died, the house was owned by the Hatheway family for a century and is currently open as a house museum, the Phelps-Hatheway House & Garden, administered by the Antiquarian and Landmarks Society.

Joseph Webb House (1752)

Built on Main Street in Wethersfield in 1752 for the wealthy merchant, Joseph Webb. This gambrel roofed house is typical of the Georgian mansions built for the wealthy in the mid-eighteenth century. During the Revolutionary War, in May 1781, George Washington made this house his headquarters for several days when he met here with the Comte de Rochambeau. The two generals planned the beginning of the campaign that would end five months later with the victory at Yorktown. Originally opened to the public by Wallace Nutting in 1916, it is currently administered by the National Society of the Colonial Dames as part of the Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum.

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