Connecticut

Shadrach Trumbull House, Suffield, Connecticut

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The house at 423 South Main Street in Suffield, around 1935-1942. Image courtesy of the Connecticut State Library.

The house in 2017:


This house is located a little south of the center of Suffield, and it was built in 1779 for Shadrach Trumbull, a tailor who was originally from Westfield, Massachusetts. He was about 24 years old when he moved into this house, which was around the same time that he married his first wife, Jael Hathaway. They had four children together, before Jael’s death in 1785. Three years later, Shadrach remarried to Lydia Dwight, and they had six children of their own.

Shadrach died in 1811, but the house appears to have remained in his family for many years. According to 19th century property maps, his daughter Mary and her husband, George Bradley, were living here into the 1850s. On such maps, it is often hard to tell which house is which, but this one appears to have been theirs. As late as the 1869 county atlas, the house was labeled as being owned by a “C. Bradley,” suggesting that the house had remained in Trumbull’s family for at least 90 years after he built it.

By 1920, the house was owned by Charles C. Austin, a middle-ages tobacco farmer who lived here with his brother Ernest, and Ernest’s wife Adeline. The first photo was taken about 15-20 years later, in the midst of the Great Depression. It was taken as part of a WPA project to document historic buildings in Connecticut, and at the time the photographer noted that it was in good condition and “mostly original.” Around 80 years later, very little has changed in this scene, and the exterior of the house remains well-preserved. The interior has also retained much of its historical integrity, and the house is now part of the Suffield Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.

Mercy Norton House, Suffield, Connecticut

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The house at 451 South Main Street in Suffield, around 1935-1942. Image courtesy of the Connecticut State Library.

The house in 2017:


According to a marker on this house, it was “A frame of a house deeded to Mercy Norton” in 1701. This is also the date provided in the National Register of Historic Places listing for the Suffield Historic District, and, if accurate, it would make this house among the oldest in the town. It would also make it a fairly early use of a gambrel roof, as this style did not come into widespread use until later in the 18th century.

The house would have been smaller when it was first built, but is has subsequently been expanded in the back, giving it a saltbox-style appearance. There is also an ell that was later added to the back of the house, although it is not visible from this angle. When the first photo was taken, the house was described as only being in “fair” condition, but it has since been restored, and in 1979 it became a contributing property n the newly-created Suffield Historic District.

James Hall House, Suffield, Connecticut

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The house at 15 High Street in Suffield, around 1935-1942. Image courtesy of the Connecticut State Library.

The house in 2017:


This house is one of many historic 18th century homes in downtown Suffield. It was built in 1786 for James Hall, with a Cape Cod-style design that was common throughout the region during this time period. Originally, it did not have the oversized dormer windows, but these were added sometime before the first photo was taken. There seems to be little available information about the original owner, but by the mid-1800s the house was owned by Joel Atwater, a harness maker whose shop was located here on the property. His name appears here on maps as early as 1855, and he lived here until his death in 1904 at the age of 93.

After his death, his daughter Mary inherited the house. She never married, and she worked as a dressmaker here at the house. She was still living here during the 1930 census, only a few years before the first photo was taken, but she appears to have died sometime before the 1940 census. When the first photo was taken, the house was listed as being in “fair” condition, with the photographer noting that the interior of the house was “greatly changed” from the 18th century. Since then, the only significant change to the exterior of the house is the removal of the double windows on the left side. These were probably not original, and their removal gives a more symmetrical and historically accurate appearance to the front of the house.

Gay Mansion, Suffield, Connecticut

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The house at 222 North Main Street in Suffield, around 1935-1942. Image courtesy of the Connecticut State Library, WPA Architectural Survey Collection.

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The house in 2017:

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One of the finest 18th century homes in Suffield is the Gay Mansion, which was built in 1795 for Ebenezer King, Jr. He was a very wealthy man, with a net worth of reportedly over $100,000 (nearly $1.5 million today), and this is reflected in his Federal-style mansion. Around the same time that this house was built, King was an investor in the Suffield, Cuyahoga, & Big Beaver Land Company. This company, comprised of a number of other Suffield men, owned entire townships in the Western Reserve, a section of northern Ohio that was, at the time, claimed by Connecticut.

Unfortunately for King, he eventually lost much of his money, and had to sell his mansion in 1811. It was purchased by William Gay, a prominent lawyer and the son of Ebenezer Gay, who had been the longtime pastor of the Congregational church. Aside from his law practice, William Gay was also the postmaster of the town for 35 years, and for much of that time the post office was located here in his living room. After his death in 1844, two of his daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, continued to live here. They never married, and after their deaths in the 1880s the house was inherited by the children of their sister Deborah.

The house remained in the Gay family for over 100 years, and by the start of the 20th century it was still filled with old family heirlooms and other antiques. It was even featured in a Good Housekeeping article in 1907, because of its extraordinary level of preservation on both the inside and outside. In 1916, it was sold to Daniel R. Kennedy, Jr., the pastor of the Congregational Church, and he was still living here a couple decades later when the first photo was taken. Very little has changed in the appearance of the house, and it is now owned by Suffield Academy and used as the residence of the headmaster.

Harvey Bissell House, Suffield, Connecticut

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The house at 82 North Main Street in Suffield, around 1935-1939. Image courtesy of the Connecticut State Library, WPA Architectural Survey Collection.

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The house in 2017:

Harvey Bissell was originally from Windsor, but around 1815 he built this house in the center of Suffield. It features Federal-style elements that were often seen in upscale homes of the day, including the ornate lintels over the windows, the quoins on the corners, and the Palladian window above the front door. The house also once had a two-story front porch, as seen in the first photo, although it is unclear whether this was an original part of the design. This porch as gone by 1939, when the house was photographed for HABS.

A year after the completion of the house, Harvey Bissell married Arabella Leavitt, and the couple had six children, one of whom died young. He was a storekeeper here in Suffield, but he and his family later moved to Hartford, Vermont. The 1850 census lists him as a farmer, with real estate valued at $40,000, equivalent to over $1.1 million today. He died that same year at the age of 63, and Arabella later moved to Lawrence, Kansas with several of her children.

Now over 200 years old, the house has undergone significant changes in recent years. In 2011, a large addition was built in the back of the original building and became Suffield Commons, a luxury apartment complex for seniors. The architecture of the addition matches the Bissell House, and the original 1815 section has been renovated into a restaurant.

John Hoskins House, Windsor, Connecticut

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The house at 560 Palisado Avenue in Windsor, around 1935-1942. Image courtesy of the Connecticut State Library, WPA Architectural Survey Collection.

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The house in 2017:

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This house was built around 1750 on Palisado Avenue, the main north-south road in Windsor, which runs parallel to the Connecticut River. The river is about a third of a mile from here, in the distance behind the house, and the floodplain in between provided early settlers with particularly fertile farmland. The house’s design is typical for area homes of the mid-18th century, featuring a slightly overhanging second story, which was somewhat of a holdover from late Medieval architecture.

According to the WPA Architectural Survey, which was conducted when the first photo was taken, the house was originally owned by a John Hoskins. This was hardly an unusual name in 18th century Windsor, though, and it does not seem clear as to which John Hoskins lived here. Regardless, the house remained in the Hoskins family until at least 1798, when a map of the town indicated that a Benjamin Hoskins owned the house. His identity also seems somewhat vague, and by the mid-19th century the house was owned by the Ellsworth family.

When the first photo was taken, the house was described as being in “excellent” condition. The only significant change to its original appearance was the porch, which was probably added sometime in the late 19th century. The porch has since been removed, along with the stone wall in the foreground and the barn in the distance. However, the house itself still stands, and probably more closely resembles its original appearance now than it did 80 years ago. It is one of many historic homes along Palisado Avenue, and is an excellent example of a typical mid-18th century farmhouse.