Truman Gillet, a Granby farmer and cooper, built a small slatbox house on North Granby Road in 1805. Gillet had acquired the land from his uncle, Azariah Gillet, who farmed in the area in partnership with Truman’s father, Nathan Gillet. Truman Gillet occupied the house until his death in 1873, at the age of 90. His house is now the Truman Gillet House B & B.
Milton, a village in Litchfield, was settled in the mid-eighteenth century. David Welch arrived in Milton from New Milford in 1753 and established a puddling furnace for refining the pig iron brought from Salisbury. The furnace was on Shear Shop Road, located behind the saltbox house, at Potash and Milton Roads, which Welch built in 1756. Welch, who also bought and sold the iron ore mined in northwestern Connecticut, later constructed an addition, for use as a store, on the eastern end of his house. Welch did business with Ethan Allen, the Revolutionary War hero, and later served as a major in the War himself. Welch moved into another house in Milton in 1784, where he died in 1815. His original house was later owned by William Bissell, from 1860 to 1902. Bissell was a farmer, house painter and captain in the Civil War. The house was also used for many years as a parish house by the neighboring Trinity Episcopal Church. There is a pdf document available with additional pictures of the house’s exterior and interior.
Eustis Brush was an indentured servant who had acquired his freedom and settled in Newtown, building a house on Main Street around 1760.
The James Curtiss House is a saltbox home on Maiden Lane in Durham. Curtiss purchased the land on which his house stands in 1722 and the house was built sometime between 1737 and 1761, when deeded half of his property to his son, Nathan Curtiss. Nathan was killed in the Revolutionary War in 1776 and his son, James, who inherited the property, was killed in an explosion at the gunpowder manufacturing mill he operated. His widow lived in the house until 1819, but his children migrated to New York and Michigan. In the 1820s, William H. Walkley bought out the shares of the various Curtiss inheritors.
David Ogden and his new wife, Jane Sturges Ogden, moved into a recently completed house in Fairfield in 1750. The house remained in the Ogden family for the next 125 years, surviving the burning of Fairfield by the British in 1779. The house later fell into bad repair, but in the 1930’s, it was restored by the architectural historian J. Frederick Kelly. Today, this saltbox colonial house is museum, operated by the Fairfield Museum and History Center and furnished according to information in David Ogden’s will and estate inventory. (There is more information in this pdf file)
Built around 1750, the Matthew Curtiss House is a saltbox home on Main Street in Newtown. The house was purchased by Matthew Curtiss Jr. in 1781. He was married twice and had twelve children. In 1970, the Newtown Historical Society purchased the house and restored it to become a museum.
The Daniel Judd House in Farmington (not to be confused with the 1875 Daniel Judd House in Cheshire) is a colonial saltbox home built around 1725-1730. The house was built on land that Daniel Judd inherited from his parents, William and Mary Steele Judd, early settlers of Farmington. Judd sold his house to his oldest surviving son, James, in 1741 and it was willed to James Judd, Jr. in 1779, although the younger James lost his money and the property was foreclosed on in 1805. It then passed through various owners until it was acquired by James O’Rourke in 1874. In 1890, O’Rourke rented the house to Theodate Pope, daughter of the wealthy industrialist Alfred Atmore Pope. She soon purchased the house in 1892. Calling it the “O’Rourkery” after its previous owner, Pope hired the architectural firm Hapgood and Hapgood to restore the house. Some years later, she added a side entrance porch to the house and would continue to make other alterations to the building over the years.
In 1896, she acquired the property next to her home, which included an earlier, seventeenth-century dwelling, possibly built for William Judd. She had this building moved and attached to the O’Rourkery as an ell. Calling it the “Gundy,” Pope opened the ell in 1902 as an “Odds and Ends Shop” for students at Miss Porter’s School. Pope would later persuade her parents to settle in Farmington, using her experiences in restoring the O’Rourkery in designing for them the famous Hill-Stead estate. She would go on to design a number of other buildings. Theodate Pope later resided at Hillstead with her husband, John Wallace Riddle, but continued to own the O’Rourkery, using it as a retreat. After her death, the estate, including the O’Rourkery, became the property of the Hill-Stead Museum. The Gundy shop continued in operation under various people until 1969, but in 1975 the Museum sold the house. It is now a private residence. Behind the Gundy today is a notable (private) Colonial Revival garden.
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