saltbox

285 Bolton Center Road, Bolton (1720)

The house at 285 Bolton Center Road in Bolton originally stood at the corner of High and Wadsworth Streets in East Hartford. It was moved to Bolton in the early 1990s by historic home restorers Len and Betty Matyia. The house, which may have been built as early as the late seventeenth century through around 1730, has been linked to the original Hartford proprietor William Hill, who traveled with Rev. Thomas Hooker to found the new settlement in 1636. Hill was captain of Hartford’s first trainband on the east side of the Connecticut River. The discovery of a connection with Hill in 1992 led to some controversy concerning the removal of the historic house from East Hartford. Restored to a post-Medieval appearance, the house is now situated in a rural colonial setting with an adjacent post and beam barn.

The Thomas Wells House (1774)

The Thomas Wells House was built as a saltbox house in 1774 on Wolcott Hill Road in Wethersfield. When viewed from the front, the house’s chimney is not visible. Capt. Thomas Wells was on the building committee for Wethersfield’s First Congregational Church.

The Caleb Stone House (1749)

The Caleb Stone House was built in 1749, at the corner of Broad and River Streets, on the property which had been the homelot of William Leete, one of the original settlers of Guilford. Leete was a leader in Guilford and went on to become governor of the New Haven Colony and then of the Connecticut Colony, which had absorbed New Haven. While he was governor of the staunchly Puritan New Haven Colony in 1661, Leete sheltered Whalley and Goffe, two of the regicides, the judges who had signed the death warrant of Charles I and were being hunted by the Restoration government. A barn behind the Stone House stands over the cellar where the regicides hid for three days. Caleb Stone Jr. and his wife, Rebecca Evarts, bought the property in 1715 and later built his saltbox home, which was lived in by members of the Stone family until 1955.

The Parke-Buckley House (1770)

Joseph Parke was a cooper who moved from Groton to Middle Haddam in 1758, when the community was still developing into what would become an important shipbuilding port on the Connecticut River. One of Parke’s sons built an asymmetrical saltbox house at Knowles Landing in 1770. After the Revolutionary War, it was occupied by Chauncey Buckley, a wealthy merchant and owner of privateers during the war.

Bates-Scofield Homestead (1736)

The Bates-Scofield Homestead is a colonial saltbox-style house, built around 1736 in Darien for John Bates, who lived there until 1774. The house was later deeded to John Bates, Jr. Before Darien’s first meetinghouse was built, services were held in the Bates House. After the Bates family, the house was owned by the Scofield family for almost a century, starting with Ezra Scofield in 1822. By 1964 the house faced demolition, until it was given to the Darien Historical Society and moved to a new site to become a museum. In 2005, the 1827 Scofield Barn was also donated to the Society and dismantled. In 2008, the barn was reunited with the house and joined to it by a new connector building.

Pelatiah Leete House (1710)

Guilford was originally part of the New Haven colony and in 1661, the town granted the land now known as Leete’s Island to William Leete. He became governor of the colony and later became governor of Connecticut. The family built a number of houses on the property, but the oldest one to survive today was built by William Leete’s grandson, Pelatiah Leete (1681-1768) in 1709-1710. In 1781, during the Revolutionary War, the British raided Leete’s Island, burning a house and two barns, but were turned back by local citizens. Pelatiah Leete III‘s brother, Simeon Leete, who shared the house with him, was wounded in the skirmish and died in the house the following day. Built as a saltbox, with an integral lean-to, the house remained in the Leete family until 1929. Harry Glenn purchased the house in 1930 and his wife, Mrs. Dorothy Glenn, first president of the Guilford Keeping Society, operated an antiques shop and tearoom in the house in the 1930s. Later owners built the addition in 1980 and the house was recently restored.