Revolutionary War - Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Capt. Jacob Pettibone House (1790)

The Captain Jacob Pettibone House, on Hopmeadow Street in Simsbury, was built around 1790. Capt. Pettibone served in the Revolutionary War. The Pettibone House is now a Sovereign Bank.

Pettibone’s Tavern (1803)

The original Pettibone’s Tavern, now Abigail’s Grille, on Hartford Road in Simsbury, was built in 1780 for Jonathan Pettibone, Jr., whose father, Jonathan Pettibone, had been killed in the fighting around New York in 1776. The Tavern served as a stagecoach stop on the Boston to Albany Turnpike. The original tavern was burned to the ground by Indians in 1800, but was soon rebuilt and reopened in 1803. In more recent times, the tavern has been a restaurant. It was purchased by the Chart House chain in the 1970s, but under new ownership became known as Pettibone’s Tavern again. In January, the building was damaged after a fire activated the sprinkler system. It was after hours and the sprinklers were not connected to an alarm, so they did extensive damage, which was not discovered until the morning. The Tavern is currently being repaired and will reopen soon under new management. The Tavern is also famous for being haunted, possibly by the ghost of Abigail Pettibone. BOO! The Story of the Pettibone Ghost, a current exhibition at the Simsbury Historical Society, focuses on the Pettibone family and the story of the ghost.

Christopher Leffingwell House (1675)

The oldest section of the Leffingwell House, on Washington Street in Norwich, dates to 1675 and was built by Steven Backus. Sometime later, the house was sold by Backus to Ensign Thomas Leffingwell, son of Lt. Thomas Leffingwell, who had given assistance to the Mohegan Chief Uncas in 1645, when he brought supplies at time when Uncas was under siege by the Narragansett. Leffingwell converted the building for use as a tavern in 1701, adding more rooms. The house is now named for his descendant, Christopher Leffingwell, who later inherited the tavern. He was a merchant and entrepreneur, who eventually built several mills. During the Revolutionary War, Leffingwell was a deputy commissary to the Continental Army and George Washington occasionally stayed at the Leffingwell Inn. In 1957, the house was moved to its present location when a connector was built linking Washington and Town Streets. Today, the Leffingwell House Museum is open to the public and operated by the Society of the Founders of Norwich.

Wadsworth Stable (1820)

George Washington slept many places, but where did George Washington’s horse sleep? In the Wadsworth Stable in Hartford, which was on the estate of Jeremiah Wadsworth, in whose house Washington, Rochambeau and Governor Trumbull had their first meeting in 1780. The original stable, built in 1730, later burned down. It was rebuilt around 1820 in the Palladian style, unusual for an outbuilding, to suit the pretensions of the Federal era. The stable was probably designed by Daniel Wadsworth, Jeremiah Wadsworth’s son. In 1842, the Wadsworth House was moved to a new location (it was torn down in 1887) when the Wadsworth Atheneum was constructed. The stable, which was owned for a time by the Hartford Public Library, remained on its original site, adjacent to the Atheneum, until 1954, when it was saved from demolition and moved to Lebanon. Its original location is now the Travelers Tower plaza. The new home of the Wadsworth Stable was provided by the Connecticut DAR and is adjacent to the Governor Jonathan Trumbull House. A plaque on the stable recognizes the generosity of Katharine Seymour Day, who also established what is now the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, for the restoration of the building.

Redwood (1778)

David Trumbull, a brother of Jonathan Trumbull, Jr and the artist John Trumbull, hired the builder Isaac Fitch to construct his house in Lebanon. Known as “Redwood,” the David Trumbull House was built in 1778-1779. He also had Fitch make reproductions of expensive English furniture for the house. Serving as commissary of the Colony of Connecticut during the Revolutionary War, David Trumbull provided supplies for General Rochambeau‘s army at Newport, Rhode Island in 1780 and supplied food and housing for the Duke de Lauzun‘s cavalry legion during their 1780-81 encampment in Lebanon. Redwood became Lazun’s headquarters during this period. David Trumbull’s son, Joseph Trumbull, was born in the house in 1782. He would later become the governor of Connecticut from 1849-1850. The building is now home to Lebanon Green Vineyards.

The Jedediah and Ebenezer Huntington House (1765)

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.

The Pardee-Morris House (1680)

The original Thomas Morris House was built around 1680, off what is now Lighthouse Road in the Morris Cove section of New Haven. It is a rare example of a stone ender house in Connecticut. The ell was added around 1767. On July 5, 1779, during the Revolutionary War, the British raided New Haven and burned the house. The surviving stone and timbers were used by Capt. Amos Morris to rebuild the home the following year. In 1915, William Pardee bought and restored the house, bequeathing it to the New Haven Colony Historical Society in 1918. Known as the Pardee-Morris House, it was open to the public as a house museum for many years, but was forced to close in 2000 due to a lack of funds. Now falling into disrepair, the house, which William Hosley describes as, “the most historic property of the Colonial era in New Haven,” faces an uncertain future.