At 34 Prospect Hill Road in the Stony Creek section of Branford is the William J. Clark House, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as “Stick Style House at Stony Creek.” Designed by Henry Austin, the house was built in 1878-1880 as the summer home of William Judson Clark of Southington. In 1854, with his two brothers, Clark had founded the Clark Brothers Company, which manufactured nuts, bolts, washers, screws and rivets. Clark lived in an 1860 house in Southington.
The house built in 1899, on Summer Street in Bristol for Herbert J. Mills, is an example of how a historic home can suffer from later unsympathetic alterations. Mills, who was the president of the H.J. Mills Box Shop company, lived in a Queen Anne-style house that still stands. With the exception of the decoration of the front entry porch, the rest of the exterior has lost most of its original stick style decoration and roof brackets. The integrity of the house’s tower has also been compromised by an addition on the north side of the building.