The house at 468 Main Street in Wethersfield, around 1935-1942. Image courtesy of the Connecticut State Library.
The house in 2024:
This house was built around 1743 as the home of Nathaniel Stillman Jr. This date coincides with his marriage to Mehitabel Deming, and the upcoming marriage may have been the reason for its construction. The design of the house is typical of mid-18th century homes here in the Connecticut River Valley, with a central chimney, a symmetrical front facade with nine windows and a door, and a door on the south side of the house that is often referred to nowadays as a “coffin door.” This term comes from its supposed use in removing coffins from the south parlor, since the large ground-floor footprint of the central chimney makes it difficult to move large objects through the front door.
The top photo was taken around the late 1930s or early 1940s, as part of an effort to document historic homes across Connecticut. By this point the appearance of the house had been altered with the addition of a front porch, which was probably put on the house sometime around the late 19th century. Other changes included the installation of 6-over-6 windows, which replaced the original ones that would have likely had 12 panes on each sash. The doors had also been changed by this point, including a front doorway with windows on either side of the door. This was probably added at some point around the early or mid 19th century, and is often found on Greek Revival style homes of that period.
Today, the house looks very different compared to its appearance in the top photo, but it more closely resembles its original 18th century appearance. At some point the house underwent restoration work, which included removing the front porch, installing 12-over-12 windows, installing plank doors, and constructing a period-appropriate front doorway. The house also now has a window directly to the right of the “coffin door,” in an area where there was no window in the top photo. It is possible that this window had once existed, but by the 1930s had been removed or covered up. Overall, the house survives as an excellent example of a mid-18th century center chimney colonial, and it is one of the many homes that comprise the Wethersfield Historic District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.