Trinity Episcopal Church, Wethersfield (1871)

Built between 1871 and 1874, Trinity Episcopal Church, on Main Street in Wethersfield, was designed by Edward Tuckerman Potter, who also designed the Church of the Good Shepherd and the Mark Twain House, both in Hartford. Like the earlier Church of the Good Shepherd, Trinity Church is in the High Victorian Gothic style and has a similar polychromatic roof.

The John Williams House (1832)

Wow, I've been posting a building a day now for four months! This week has had a real Wethersfield focus, so let's continue today with the Greek Revival-style house built in 1832-1834 for John Williams, son of Ezekiel Williams, on Main Street. It stands next to First Church and today serves as church's parsonage.

The Samuel Woodhouse House (1748)

Built on Main Street in Wethersfield in 1748 by Samuel Woodhouse, who was in the West Indies trade. He married Thankful Blinn, the granddaughter of the cabinetmaker Peter Blinn. Their son, Samuel Woodhouse, Jr., later built a house on nearby River Road. The house was bought in 1870 by William Hurlbut, one of the last Wethersfield sea captains.

The Nathaniel Stillman House (1743)

Built in 1743 on Main Street in Wethersfield for Nathaniel Stillman, Jr., an officer of General Washington's Life Guards.

The Joshua Stoddard House (1737)

Traditionally thought to have been built by Eli Welles between 1737 and 1740, the Joshua Stoddard House may have been built later in the eighteenth century. It was in the Stoddard family for much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Significant renovations were made in the 1920s and 30s, including the addition of a Connecticut River Valley style doorway.

The Lucius Barbour House (1865)

Built in 1865 on Washington Street in Hartford, the Lucius Barbour House was once one of many such fine houses on the street. The others are now lost, but the Barbour House remains as an example of a mid-nineteenth century Italian Villa. Many alterations have been made to the house since it was built, including the enclosing of the front porch. In the 1890s, the house was inherited by Barbour's son, Lucius A. Barbour, who was president of the Willimantic Linen Company. He updated the interior in the Colonial Revival style. His son, Lucius B. Barbour, as State Examiner of Public Records, directed the compilation of the Barbour Collection of Connecticut Vital Records, an important source for the study of genealogy. The first two floors of the Barbour House are currently the offices of a law firm, while the top floor is the home and studio of an artist.

The Capt. Charles Bulkeley House (1764)

Captain Charles Bulkeley was a Wethersfield ship captain and a privateer during the Revolutionary War, who died in the West Indies. Three sons followed him to sea, including Captain Charles Bulkeley, Jr. The Bulkeley House, on Broad Street Green in Wethersfield, is a typical single-chimney, gambrel-roofed eighteenth-century ship captain's home.

The Appleton Robbins House (1760)

The 1760 Appleton Robbins House is a center chimney colonial home on Warner Place in Wethersfield. The house is built into a hill behind it. Robbins also built a blacksmith shop behind his home.

The Henry Barnard House (1807)

The Henry Barnard House was built on Main Street in Hartford in 1807. Henry Barnard, who became the first United States Commissioner of Education in 1867, was born in the house in 1811 and died in 1900. He added the Greek Revival-style portico in 1843. The house also once had four brick chimneys, which were later removed. Overlooking Barnard Park, in the South Green neighborhood of Hartford, the house now serves as transitional housing.

The Daniel Hosmer House (1774)

The Daniel Hosmer House is a 1774 center-chimney colonial house on North Main Street in West Hartford. It was later owned by the Hatheway family.

Barney Library (1919)

The Barney Library in Farmington, adjacent to First Church, was built in 1919. Originally called the Village Library, it was donated to the town by D. Newton Barney, in honor of his mother. A children's wing was added in 1959. The Village Library was the town's main library until 1983, when it became a branch library. It was renamed the Barney Library in 1999.

Hartford County Building (1929)

Begun in 1926, the Hartford County Courthouse Building, on Washington Street in Hartford, opened in 1929. The architects were Paul P. Cret, of Philadelphia, working with the Hartford architectural firm of Smith & Bassette (Roy Bassette had been Cret's student at the University of Pennsylvania). Designed in Cret's severe variation of the Beaux-Arts style, featuring striped-down classical details, it replaced an earlier 1885 structure, located at the corner of Trumbull and Allyn Streets, that was later torn down. The Hartford County Building now serves as the Hartford Judicial District Courthouse.

The Deacon John Grave House (1685)

Built in 1685 by John Grave, Sr. for his son, John Grave, Jr. on the Boston Post Road in Madison, down the road from the Allis-Bushnell House, which was built 100 years later. The Deacon John Grave House originally consisted of just two rooms, until around 1710, when it was expanded into a center-chimney house to accommodate Grave's growing family. Sometime during the Revolutionary War, the house was expanded again with the addition of a shed in the rear, making it into a saltbox. Seven generations of the same family lived in the house in the following centuries. In 1983, when it was in danger of destruction, the Deacon John Grave Foundation was created to save and restore the home, and it is currently maintained by the Foundation as a house museum.

The John Loveland House (1740)

Built in 1740 and later moved to its current location, on Main Street in Wethersfield, from a location nearer to the Meeting House, the John Loveland House may have originally been a Sabbath House. These were used by families who traveled a distance to attend church but could not go home easily for a break between services.

The Allis-Bushnell House (1785)

Built around 1785 on the Boston Post Road in Madison, the Allis-Bushnell House was at one time the home of Cornelius Scranton Bushnell, a railroad executive and shipbuilder, who played an important role in the building of the Civil War ironclad, the U.S.S. Monitor. Later he was a founder of the Union Pacific Railway. In the early twentieth century, the house was the home and office of Dr. Milo Rindye. It is currently the home of the Madison Historical Society.

East Windsor Hill Post Office (1757)

In 1757, David Bissell Jr. sold part of his land to Jeremiah Ballard, a barber, who built a shop on Main Street, in East Windsor Hill. The remainder of this shop is the present long ell of the East Windsor Hill Post Office. In 1759, Bissell gave the rest of his land to his son, David Bissell III, who later attached a shop/storehouse to Ballard's shop. This is the gambrel-roofed warehouse with overhead doorway that now houses the Post Office. Different owners divided the structure for various businesses selling dry goods and groceries over the following years, well into the twentieth century. It also served as a post office, receiving its first government post rider in 1783. It is the oldest continuously operated post office in the country.

The Buckley-Coffing House (1847)

Built sometime between 1847 and 1855 on South Main Street in West Hartford. Like the similarly Greek Revival-style Stephen Willard House in Wethersfield, it features a gable-end facing the street and a side entrance. The round-headed window in the gable is an Italianate, rather than a Greek Revival feature. Substantial additions on the rear of the house project on either side, the one on the north elevation creating a tri-gable L-shape. The house was probably built by George Buckley, who sold his farm to Charles Coffing in 1863.

The Stephen Willard House (1837)

Built in 1837, the Stephen Willard House, on Broad Street Green in Wethersfield, followed the Greek Revival style of the time by having its gable-end face the street. This was to emulate the facade of a classical Greek temple. Unlike Greek Revival houses in which the front door was also on the facade, such as the Chester Bulkeley House (also in Wethersfield), the Willard House features a side entrance.

Stephen F. Willard was a later owner of the house. He began as a traveling salesman for the seed company Comstock, Ferre & Co., eventually becoming its president. He was also a founder of the American Seed Trade Association and the Wethersfield Village Improvement Association.

The Ezekiel Williams House (1759)

Built around 1759 for the merchant, Ezekiel Williams, on Broad Street in Wethersfield. Williams was the sheriff of Hartford County from 1767 to 1789 and, during the Revolutionary War, he served as a member of the Committee of the Pay Table and Deputy Commissary General of Prisoners in Connecticut.

The Capt. Jesse Goodrich House (1818)

Built in 1818 on Main Street in Wethersfield for Capt. Jesse Goodrich, a ship owner and merchant. Each gable-end of the house features an oval window, with a chimney right behind it. The rear addition to this Federal style house dates to the 1870s.

The Simeon Belden House (1767)

Built in 1767, on Main Street in Wethersfield, for Simeon Belden, who married Martha, daughter of the minister, James Lockwood. It has a gambrel roof, similar to that of the Webb House and other nearby houses in Wethersfield. The Simeon Belden House is one of very few remaining in the Connecticut River Valley to have its original broken scroll, or swan's neck, doorway pediment. The house, adjacent to Comstock, Ferre & Co., is currently used as offices and also houses the Krown & Kringle Danish pasty shop.

The Dr. Aretus Rising House (1854)

Built in 1854 on South Main Street in Suffield by Dr. Aretus Rising, right next door to another house he built in 1846. This Italianate house has lattice-work columns.

The Capt. Daniel Francis House (1803)

Built in 1803, possibly by James Francis, on Main Street in Wethersfield, for Capt. Daniel Francis. This Federal style house was later updated to the Second Empire style in the 1870s with the addition of a Mansard roof.

The Richard Bunce House and Tavern (1800)

Designed by master builder Captain James Francis, the 1800 Richard Bunce House, at the corner of Main and Garden Streets in Wehersfield, displays some of the same Federal features, like semi-circular windows, as in Francis' earlier Robert Robbins House. The Bunce House was also a tavern, the entrance being on the west, or Main Street side.

The John Welles Loomis House (1846)

Originally built as a center-chimney house in 1846 for Dr. Aretus Rising on South Main Street in Suffield. In 1854, the house was bought by John Welles Loomis, a successful tobacco entrepreneur, who converted it to a center hallway, two chimney house with Greek Revival features. Loomis later built an Italianate house nearby for his son, George W. Loomis.

The Solomon Welles House (1774)

Overlooking the Cove on Hartford Avenue in Wethersfield, the 1774 Solomon Welles House, built for a descendant of the colonial governor Thomas Welles, is owned by the town and is available to be rented for events.

The Henry Stillman House (1872)

The Henry Stillman House is an 1872 Gothic Revival style home on Main Street in Wethersfield.

The Deming-Standish House (1787)

Built in 1787 for Henry Deming on Main Street in Wethersfield and later owned by the Standish family, the Deming-Standish House was given to the town of Wethersfield in 1928. It is very similar to the 1783 brick house built for Samuel Woodhouse, Jr., on nearby River Road. In 1800, James Francis and his cousin, Simeon, were contracted to do the woodworking of the front rooms and the windows, the facade thus being updated in the Federal style. Within a few years, the neighboring Hurlbut and Shepard Houses would be constructed in the Federal style. The house was leased to the Wethersfield Historical Society in 1983 and over the years has been rented to different proprietors as a restaurant, first as The Standish House, and more recently as The Village Tavern. It is currently between tenants.

The General Mansfield House (1810)

Built in 1810 on Main Street in Middletown for the merchant Samuel Mather, the Federal-style General Mansfield House was later home to Mather's daughter Louisa and her husband, General Joseph K. F. Mansfield. At the start of the Civil War, Mansfield was in charge of the defense of Washington, D.C. On September 17, 1862, he was killed at the Battle of Antietam (or Sharpsburg) in Maryland, haven just taken command two days before of the XII Corps of the Army of the Potomac. A monument and a mortuary cannon are dedicated to him on the battlefield of Antietam. There is also a monument in Middletown's Indian Hill Cemetery, where he is buried. His house was later occupied by his descendants. Slated for demolition in the 1950s, it was saved by the Middlesex County Historical Society and now serves as the Society's headquarters and museum.

The Samuel Woodhouse, Jr. House (1783)

A brick gambrel-roofed house, on River Road in Wethersfield, was constructed for Samuel Woodhouse, Jr. in 1783. He was a sailor and shipbuilder and the son of Samuel Woodhouse, Sr. and Thankful Blinn, the granddaughter of the famous cabinetmaker Peter Blinn. Woodhouse also served in the Revolutionary War.

The Old State House (1796)

The Old State House in Hartford was designed by Charles Bulfinch, who sent the plans from Boston. Bulfinch was perhaps influenced by the design of the Town Hall of Liverpool, England. The original design was much simpler than what is seen today. Many important features were added later, including the balustrade along the roof-line, added to protect firefighters, and the cupola, with a figure of Justice, completed in 1827. It was designed by John Stanwood and modeled on the cupola of City Hall in New York. The entrance to the Old State House faces the Connecticut River, emphasizing the importance of the river to the city at that time. The Connecticut General Assembly, which alternated sessions between Hartford and New Haven until 1875, held its Hartford sessions in the building from 1796 until 1878, when the new State Capitol Building was opened. The Connecticut Supreme Court also met in the Old State House until 1878. Famous events to take place in the building include the infamous Hartford Convention of 1815 and the first Amistad Trial in 1839.

The Old State House building next served as Hartford's City Hall from 1878 to 1915, when the new Municipal Building was constructed. For many decades, a large Second Empire style Post Office building occupied the front lawn of the Old State House until it was torn down in 1934 and the open area in front was restored. In the twentieth century, the building was either neglected or in danger of being torn down on several occasions, but citizens groups stepped in to save it. It has also undergone several restorations and been open as a museum operated by several different organizations over the years, most recently the Connecticut Historical Society since 2003. The Old State House was in the news earlier this year due to a funding crisis. This prompted a variety of responses and ideas about the future of this historic building.