Museum - Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Revolutionary War Office (1727)

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.

Bullet Hill School (1789)

Bullet Hill School is located on Main Street in Southbury. Built in 1789, it is one of New England’s oldest surviving brick schoolhouses. Earlier known as the brick school, it is thought to have acquired its name from a hill in Southbury where bullets were cast during the Revolutionary War (or, in an alternate version of the story, a hill where bullets were discharged during militia practice, which were then remolded for reuse at the school. Used as a school until 1942, the building was saved in the 1960s and and restored in the 1970s by the Friends of Bullet Hill School, which became the Southbury Historical Society in 1974. It is now maintained by the town and the Historical Society and for over twenty years has hosted a living history program for the region’s third graders.

The Hurd House (1660)

The Hurd House in Woodbury is a combination of what were originally two smaller houses. The older, north section, dates to around 1680 and was the home of John Hurd, who became the town’s miller in 1681. The south section, which may have originally been the home of Hurd’s son, was added to the older structure in 1718, to increase the overall size of the house. The two original houses were of the end-chimney type, while the structure resulting from the combination has a central chimney. By 1779, a lean-to was added, making the house a saltbox, although this was later removed. In 1967, the house was acquired by the Old Woodbury Historical Society.

A new feature is being launched today at Historic Buildings of Connecticut. I plan to do a series of articles discussing some of the different architectural styles found in Connecticut. I will be using buildings which have appeared on this site as examples, sometimes with different photos than those which have appeared here before. The first of these articles is on Colonial Houses, which can be found at the url address:
https://historicbuildingsct.com/?page_id=502. This and later articles to come will be indexed on the Architecture page (also listed in the bar above the site banner), so please check there for future additions!

The Glebe House (1750)

Built around 1750, the Glebe House in Woodbury gained its name because it became the home of an Anglican clergyman. A glebe is the farmland occupied by a rural clergyman as a benefice. In 1771, John Rutgers Marshall arrived in Woodbury as its first Episcopal priest and resided in the Glebe House. In 1783, a group of Episcopal clergy met in the house and chose Reverend Dr. Samuel Seabury as the first bishop in America. The house was later occupied by Gideon B. Botsford, a silversmith. By the 1920s, the house was in disrepair after passing through various owners. It was then saved from demolition through the efforts of the Seabury Society for the Preservation of the Glebe House. In 1923, the house was restored by William Henry Kent and opened to the public as a house museum in 1925. The next year, the eminent English gardener Gertrude Jekyll was commissioned to design a garden for the museum. It was never fully installed, but has since been restored according to the original plans. Visitors can now enjoy the Glebe House Museum and The Gertrude Jekyll Garden.

Stevens-Frisbie House (1854)

The Stevens-Frisbie House is an Italianate-style home built in 1853-1854 at the intersection of Main Street and New Lane in Cromwell. It was built by John Stevens, who came to Cromwell in the 1830s and, with his brother Elisha, founded the J & E Stevens Company, which manufactured hardware and toys, including mechanical banks. After John Stevens’s death, his widow sold the house to Russel Frisbie in 1892. Frisbie was superintendent of J & E Stevens and had lived in a neighboring house on Main Street since 1873. The house was passed down in the Frisbie family, until it was bequeathed, with all of its Victorian-era furnishings, to the Cromwell Historical Society in 1968. It now serves as the Society’s headquarters and is open to the public for tours as a historic house museum. The most significant alteration to the house has been the turn-of-the-century addition of a Colonial Revival-style front porch. (more…)

Jonathan Trumbull, Jr. House (1769)

Jonathan Trumbull, Jr. was the son of Jonathan Trumbull, Sr., Connecticut’s governor during the Revolutionary War. He was the brother of the artist John Trumbull, who painted notable scenes from the Revolution. Jonathan Jr. served during the war himself as Military Sectary to George Washington, replacing Alexander Hamilton in that position in 1781 and holding it throughout the Yorktown Campaign. After the war, Trumbull served as Governor of Connecticut (1797-1809). Trumbull’s house, on the Green in Lebanon, was originally built around 1769 by his father and was remodeled during the war in the fashionable Georgian style by the master builder Isaac Fitch. George Washington spent the night of March 4, 1781 in the home, which is now owned and operated as a house museum by the Town of Lebanon.

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Strong-Porter House (1730)

The earliest (eastern) section of the Strong-Porter House, on South Street in Coventry, was built around 1730 by Aaron Strong. Strong’s niece, Elizabeth Strong, married Deacon Richard Hale, who came from Newburyport Mass. to Coventry. In 1758, the Strongs sold the house to the Porter family, who expanded the western section and added a rear lean-to by about 1777. In 1930, the house was purchased from the Porters by the lawyer and antiquarian, George Dudley Seymour, who lived there during his restoration of the nearby Nathan Hale Homestead. Seymour mistakenly believed that Nathan Hale’s mother Elizabeth Strong Hale had lived in the house. The building is now a property of the Coventry Historical Society and is open to visitors as a house museum.