Museum - Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Daniel Benton Homestead (1720)

The Daniel Benton Homestead in Tolland was built in 1720 and was home to members of the Benton family until 1932. In 1777, during the Revolutionary War, twenty-four Hessian officers, who had surrendered after the British defeat at Saratoga, were quartered in the house on their journey to Boston, from where they would be shipped back to Germany. Daniel Benton had three grandsons who fought in the war: two died as a result of imprisonment by the British while the third, Elisha Benton, returned home in late 1776, after his confinement on a prison ship, where he had contracted smallpox. Back home, he was nursed by Jemima Barrows, whom he had courted before the war. He died after a few weeks, and she followed shortly after, having contracted the disease during their time together. They were both buried on the property, but were not buried next to each other, as they had not married. The Daniel Benton Homestead is famous as a haunted house and numerous articles with ghost stories about the house have been written on many sites. The house was purchased in 1932 by Florrie Bishop Bowering, a WTIC radio personality, who lived there until she died in 1968. The next owners, Charles B. Goodstein and William A Shocket, donated the house the following year to the Tolland Historical Society to open as a museum.

Martha A. Parsons House (1782)

The Martha A. Parsons House, in Enfield, was built in 1792 by John Meacham on property that was initially intended for use by ministers (parsons). In 1800, the house was purchased by John Ingraham, a retired Saybrook sea captain, who placed George Washington Memorial wallpaper in the front hall. In 1906, Juliaette Parsons, the widow of Ingraham’s great-grandson, moved in with her three daughters. One of them, Martha A. Parsons, entered the world of business, eventually becoming secretary of the Landers, Frary & Clark of New Britain in 1912. After a fifty year career, she retired to Enfield to live with her sisters. She died in 1962 and the home was bequeathed to the Enfield Historical Society, which operates it as the Martha A. Parsons Museum.

Prudence Crandall House (1805)

What is today known as the Prudence Crandall House, in Canterbury, was originally built around 1805 for Luther Paine by the architect, Thomas Gibbs. The house, also known as the Elisha Payne House, was built in the “Canterbury type” of the Federal style, so named because there are several similar houses in town. Distinctive features of the Canterbury Style include having a gable atop a hipped roof with twin chimneys and a complex two-and-a-half story entrance composition with a triangular pediment above a Gothic-influenced Palladian window above an elaborate doorway. In 1831, the house became a school for girls, run by Prudence Crandall of Rhode Island, who had been invited by Canterbury residents to head the school. When Crandall accepted Sarah Harris, the daughter of a free African American farmer, to the school, many townspeople objected and began to remove their daughters from the school. In response, Crandall decided attract students from free black communities in New England to her school, who could be trained as teachers. In 1833, the state passed a “Black Law” making it illegal for the school to operate. Crandall was arrested, spent a night in jail, and faced various charges until her case was dismissed in 1834. A dissatisfied mob then attacked the school, which was forced to close. Crandall soon married and left Connecticut. The “Black Law” was repealed in 1838 and years later, in 1886 the Connecticut legislature honored Crandall with an annual pension. She was designated the official state heroine of Connecticut in 1995 and her former house and school is now the Prudence Crandall Museum, operated by the state.

Huntington Homestead (1700)

Built sometime in the period 1700-1722, the Huntington Homestead in Scotland was the birthplace and childhood home of Samuel Huntington, who went on to become a Signer of the Declaration of Independence, President of the Continental Congress from 1779 to 1781 and Governor of Connecticut. Huntington later lived in a house in Norwich. The Homestead was later owned by the Kimball family, who sold it to the Town of Scotland in 1994. The house was then acquired by The Governor Samuel Huntington Trust to be opened as a museum.

Also, Historic Buildings of Massachusetts now has a new blog theme!!!

The Wadsworth Mansion at Long Hill Estate (1911)

Starting in 1900, after he married Katharine Fearing Hubbard, Colonel Clarence S. Wadsworth began to acquire land in the rural western section of Middletown for his estate. Known as Long Hill, it eventually grew to 600 acres and featured landscaping designed in part by John Charles Olmsted. The estate also included the $90,000 Wadsworth Mansion, built between 1909 and 1911. Designed by Francis Hoppin, the architect of Edith Wharton’s home, the Mount, the mansion was ahead of its time in the use of reinforced structural concrete and fireproofing. It was occupied by the Wadsworths as a summer home, until the Colonel died in 1941. He bequeathed it to the Rockfall Corporation, which he had established in 1935— an organization dedicated to natural resource conservation, preservation and development. Part of the Estate became Wadsworth Falls State Park, while the house and remainder of the Estate was sold in 1947 to Our Lady of the Cenacle, an order of nuns. Sold to a developer in 1986, the building fell into disrepair and was vandalized. A fire in 1990 almost destoyed the house, which was saved owing to its reinforced concrete. Purchased by the City of Middletown in 1994, the Mansion was restored and opened in 1999 as a facility available for weddings and other functions.

Fort Trumbull (1852)

In 1775, Governor Jonathan Trumbull recommended that a fort be constructed near the mouth of the Thames River to protect the port of New London. The first Fort Trumbull, completed in 1777, was captured by the British during Arnold’s 1781 Raid. The Fort was rebuilt around 1808 as a “second system” fort, a structure that was later replaced by the present fortification, a “third system” fort, constructed between 1839 and 1852. Fort Trumbull is a five-sided, four-bastion coastal defense fort and is unique among American forts because it was built in the Egyptian Revival style, inspired by the Temple of Luxor. During the Civil War, the Fort was an organizational center and the headquarters of Connecticut’s 14th Infantry Regiment. Over the years, Fort Trumbull has also been used as a training facility: it was the site of the the U.S. Revenue Cutter Academy and then the Coast Guard Academy until 1932; the Merchant Marine Officer Training School program from 1939 to 1946; and was used as the Fort Trumbull campus of the University of Connecticut from 1946 to 1950, where it served veterans attending college under the GI Bill. Fort Trumbull next became the Naval Under Water Sound Laboratory. After the Laboratory was closed in the 1990s, the site was redeveloped to become a State Park. Work began in 1999 and in 2001 it was opened to the public for tours.

George Greenman House (1839)

George Greenman was the eldest of three brothers who founded the shipyard in Mystic known as George Greenman & Co. His house on Greenmanville Avenue was built in 1839 and was enlarged and further ornamented later in the nineteenth century. Greenman’s brothers initially resided in the house with him, until they built their own homes nearby on Greenmanville Avenue. The Greenman home is reported to have been a stop on the Underground Railroad. The Mystic Seaport living history museum acquired the house from George Greenman‘s great-granddaughter in 1970. The house has a Historic Structures Report.