The Welles-Shipman-Ward House (1755)

Built in 1755 on Main Street in South Glastonbury by the shipbuilder, Col. Thomas Welles for his son, John Welles and his wife, Jerusha Edwards Welles. The Welles family owned the house until 1789, when losses on three privateers built during the Revolutionary War forced them to sell it to two creditors, Stephen Shipman, Jr. and Nathaniel Talcott, Jr. Shipman eventually bought the entire property and added neoclassical, Federal-style features. His family owned the house for over a century. In 1925, it was purchased by Berdena Hart Ward, who restored the home and gave it to the Historical Society of Glastonbury in 1962. It is currently open for tours as the Welles-Shipman-Ward House Museum.