Ambrose Whittlesey was a sea captain who built his house in 1799 on Main Street in Old Saybrook. The ell of the house is earlier, dating to around 1765. The Whittleseys were civil leaders in Old Saybrook and founded the town library. In 1919, the house was acquired Grace Pratt, last surviving member of Ambrose Whittlesey’s family. In 1977, the house’s current owners bought it to become a home furnishings store, which has since grown into a shopping complex called Saybrook Country Barn.
Some readers of this site may be aware of the Connecticut town history links page I created. Each town has a page with links to relevant websites and online books. I have recently been working on a similar page for Massachusetts. So far, it only has a few towns (mostly ones where I’ve taken pictures of buildings). Some of the towns, like Cambridge, Springfield, Salem, Lexington and Concord have many links. Unsurprisingly, Boston has a massive number of links and a huge collection of online books on many different topics, which I have made easier to navigate with a number of internal links, listed at the top of the page. Please check out both the Massachusetts and Connecticut town link pages!