Georgian

Simeon Belden House, Wethersfield, Connecticut (2)

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The house at 249 Main Street in Wethersfield, around 1935-1942. Image courtesy of the Connecticut State Library.

The house in 2024:

As explained in more detail in the previous post, this house was built in 1767 as the home of Simeon and Martha Belding, and it stands as an excellent example of mid-18th century Connecticut River Valley architecture. Most notably, it features an elaborately carved scroll pediment doorway. This was a distinctive characteristic of high-end homes in the valley, and it is one of the few such homes to have survived with its original doorway intact.

The top photo was taken around the late 1930s or early 1940s, showing the view of the house from the southeast. Very little has changed since then, and it stands as one of the many historic 18th century homes that still line Main Street in Wethersfield. Along with the other homes in the area, it is a contributing property in the Wethersfield Historic District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.

Simeon Belden House, Wethersfield, Connecticut

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The house at 249 Main Street in Wethersfield, on July 29, 1940. Photographed by Stanley P. Mixon, courtesy of the Library of Congress, Historic American Buildings Survey Collection.

The house in 2024:

Main Street in Wethersfield includes many excellent examples of colonial architecture, but one of the finest is this house at 249 Main Street, near the corner of Church Street. It was built in 1767 as the home of Simeon and Martha Belding, and it has many characteristics that were found in higher-end homes in the Connecticut River Valley during this era. Among these are the large gambrel roof, and also the two chimneys, which were in contrast to the single central chimney that most other houses had. The central chimneys had the drawback of not allowing for a large entry hall and staircase inside the main entrance, so the twin chimney design was a more fashionable alternative for those who could afford it.

However, the most distinctive architectural feature of this house is the decorative doorway around the front door. Such doorways were popular in the river valley during the mid-18th century, and they typically included fluted pilasters on the sides of the door and an entablature above it. There were several different variations, but the most elaborate of the doorways also included a scroll pediment atop the door. At one point there were at least four homes with scroll pediment doorways, but the Belding House is the only one that survives. It is also one of only a small number of homes anywhere in the valley that still has its original doorway.

Aside from its architectural significance, this house is also notable for its role in the seed business. In the early 19th century, Simeon and Martha’s son James Lockwood Belden founded the Wethersfield Seed Gardens, which produced seeds for a variety of vegetables and herbs while living here in this house. He later sold the business to Franklin and William Comstock, and in 1845 it was incorporated as Comstock, Ferre & Co. The company would go on to become a major seed supplier for many years, and it still exists today as the Heirloom Market at Comstock Ferre, which is located next to the house.

The top photo was taken in 1940 as part of an effort to document the house for the Historic American Buildings Survey. By that point the house had undergone some restoration work in the early 20th century, including replacing the pedestals of the doorway and installing new doors, which are shown in both photos. Not much has changed in this view since then, and the house still stands as an important architectural landmark in Wethersfield.

Ebenezer Talcott House, Wethersfield, Connecticut

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The house at 366 Main Street in Wethersfield, around 1935-1942. Image courtesy of the Connecticut State Library.

The house in 2024:

This house was built around 1750, and it was originally the home of Ebenezer Talcott. Its design is typical for the period, including a front facade with four windows and a door on the first floor, and five windows on the second floor. On the southern side of the house is a so-called “coffin door,” and in the middle of the house is a large central chimney that would have provided heat to all of the rooms. This particular house also has a saltbox-style roof, with a long back roof that slopes down to the first floor.

By the time the top photo was taken around the late 1930s or early 1940s, the house had seen some changes to its original appearance. The front doorway, with its sidelights and entablature, was likely added at some point in the first half of the 19th century. The 6-over-6windows on the first floor may have been added around the same time, although the second floor still had 12-over-8 windows, which may have been original. Other changes included the installation of exterior shutters, which were likely also a 19th century modification.

Today, this view of the house has seen few changes in the past 80-85 years. The historically inaccurate shutters are gone, and the front door has been replaced by a colonial-style plank door with strap hinges. The “coffin door” is likewise a plank door now, although it is hidden from view by the tree in the foreground. Overall, the exterior of the house has retained much of its historical integrity, and it is one of the many colonial-era homes that line Main Street in Wethersfield. Along with the other houses in the area, it is now part of the Wethersfield Historic District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.

Nathaniel Stillman Jr. House, Wethersfield, Connecticut

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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.

Josiah Cooley House, Longmeadow, Massachusetts (5)

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The house at the corner of Longmeadow and Emerson Streets in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, on September 12, 1917. Image courtesy of the Longmeadow Historical Society, Paesiello Emerson Collection.

The house in 2023:

This house has been featured in previous posts, and there are many early 20th century images of it thanks to Paesiello Emerson, an amateur photographer who lived here during that period. As explained in more detail in an earlier post, the house is believed to have been built around 1760 as the home of Josiah and Experience Cooley. An earlier house, belonging to Josiah’s father Eliakim, had stood here on this same spot earlier in the 18th century, and it is possible that the current house may have been built in part on the foundation of Eliakim’s house.

These two photos show the view of the back of the house from the southwest, on what is now Emerson Road. From this angle, the house would have looked very different when it was initially constructed. It was built as a saltbox, with a second floor on the front part of the house and a long sloping roof here on the back of the house. However, when Josiah and Experience’s granddaughter Lucy Colton inherited the house in the late 1820s, she modernized and expanded the house.

Some of this work included raising the roof to create a full second story, along with additions on the north and west sides of the house. The two-story northern addition, which is visible in the distance on the far side of the house, included living space for Lucy’s son Luther Woolworth Colton and his newlywed wife Abigail. The western addition, shown on the left side of these photos, was one story in height, and it appears to have been used for storage and workshop space, rather than as living space

Aside from these structural changes, Lucy also made some interior and exterior design changes, in keeping with early 19th century trends. On the exterior, this included removing the original 12-over-12 windows from the front of the house and replacing them with new 6-over-6 windows. However, rather than discarding the old windows, they were installed here on the back part of the house and in the back addition, likely because they would not be as visible from the street.

The house would remain in the Cooley-Colton family for several more decades, but in 1869 Lucy’s son Josiah Cooley Colton sold the house and 20 acres of land to Bradford W. Palmer for $4,500. The Palmer family, however, would only stay here for a few years before selling it to William G. Emerson, a carpenter who was originally from eastern Massachusetts. His family included his wife Lovina and their children William, Annie, and Henry. The elder William died in 1887, Lovina died in 1897, and at some point the younger William moved into a house of his own in Longmeadow, but Annie and Henry would live here for their entire lives.

Neither Annie nor Henry ever married, but in 1907 they were joined here by their older half brother Paesiello Emerson. He was a widower in his mid-70s, and he had worked for much of his life as a boot maker. However, when he was in his 70s he took up photography as a hobby. He tended to prefer photographing landscapes and old buildings, and he captured several thousand images, including many here in Longmeadow. He continued his photography into his 90s, creating a valuable photographic archive of the town’s early 20th century development.

Paesiello Emerson died here in the house in 1927 at the age of 95. At some point in the 1920s, William Emerson also returned to live here, and he died in the house in 1930 at the age of 81. The two younger siblings, Annie and Henry, remained here until their deaths in 1941 and 1943, at the age of 81 and 77 respectively. Henry was a farmer who grew raspberries and asparagus here, along with raising poultry. Annie was a teacher, but she was also the town historian. She conducted extensive research on the historic homes in Longmeadow, including her own, and much of the information about this house is based on her notes.

The house was sold by the Emerson heirs after Henry’s death in 1943, and subsequent owners did some restoration work as well as modernization of the house. Here on the back part of the house, this included adding an enclosed porch to the back of the house and adding an open porch to the back addition. The garage was also extended outward by a few feet to accommodate cars, and a second garage door was added. Other changes, which are hard to notice from this particular angle, included removing the “coffin door” from the south side of the house, and adding another second-story window to the back of the house. The latter was evidently done in the late 1940s, when two new bathrooms were installed in the back part of the second floor.

Overall, though, the appearance of the house is not drastically different from its appearance in 1917 when Paesiello Emerson took the top photo. Aside from the porches and the small addition to the garage, the overall form of the house has not changed. It retains its chimneys, including the large central chimney, and most of the windows appear to either be original or, in the case of the 6-over-6 windows, date to the late 1820s renovation. Many of the 12-over-12 windows can still be found in the back part of the house, and are likely the same ones that had once been installed on the front part of the house in the mid-1700s.

Wells-Thorn House, Deerfield, Massachusetts

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The Wells-Thorn House at the corner of Old Main Street and Memorial Street in Deerfield, in November 1959. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Historic American Buildings Survey Collection.

The house in 2023:

This house was built around 1747 as the home of Ebenezer Wells (1691-1758) and his wife Abigail Barnard (1691-1772). They had no children, but their household here included at least two enslaved people: Lucy Terry (c.1733-1821) and Caesar (baptized 1734). Lucy is best remembered today for being the author of the poem “Bars Fight,” earliest known work of African American literature. The poem memorializes those who were killed during a 1746 Native American raid on a group of families that were working in the meadows, or “bars,” near the village. It seems unclear when the poem was first put down on paper, but it remained an oral tradition for more than a century before it was published by Josiah Gilbert Holland in his 1855 book History of Western Massachusetts. According to Holland, the poem reads:

August ’twas the twenty-fifth,
Seventeen hundred forty-six;
The Indians did in ambush lay,
Some very valient men to slay,
The names of whom I’ll not leave out.
Samuel Allen like a hero fout,
And though he was so brave and bold,
His face no more shall we behold.
Eleazer Hawks was killed outright,
Before he had time to fight,—
Before he did the Indians see,
Was shot and killed immediately.
Oliver Amsden he was slain,
Which caused his friends much grief and pain.
Simeon Amsden they found dead,
Not many rods distant from his head.
Adonijah Gillett we do hear
Did lose his life which was so dear.
John Sadler fled across the water,
And thus escaped the dreadful slaughter.
Eunice Allen see the Indians coming,
And hopes to save herself by running,
And had not her petticoats stopped her,
The awful creatures had not catched her,
Nor tommy hawked her on her head,
And left her on the ground for dead.
Young Samuel Allen, Oh lack-a-day!
Was taken and carried to Canada.

Because the raid happened only a year or so before this house was built, it is possible that Lucy was living in the house when she composed the poem. But either way, she appears to have lived here until at least 1756, when she married Abijah Prince, a free Black man who was from Curaçao. An article written by the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association suggests that the wedding may have occurred here in this house, as was customary for the time. Lucy appears to have gained her freedom around this time, and she and Abijah lived on the eastern part of the Wells property early in their marriage. By 1764, they had moved to Guilford, Vermont, where they owned land. Abijah died in 1794, and Lucy eventually moved to Sunderland, Vermont, where she died in 1821.

In the meantime, Ebenezer and Abigail Wells lived here until Ebenezer’s death in 1758. He left the house to his nephew Ebenezer Wells (1730-1783), and Abigail subsequently moved to Northampton. The younger Ebenezer lived here for the rest of his life, as did his wife Mercy Bardwell (1737-1801). Their son David then inherited the property, but sold it to lawyer Hezekiah W. Strong (1768-1848).

Strong repainted the house to a bright robins egg blue color, evidently in the hopes of drawing attention to his law practice. However, he only remained in town for a few years, and he sold it in 1804 to John Dwight. The house was later owned by the Ware family for most of the 19th century, and then in 1905 it was sold to Edwin (1874-1920) and Luanna (1874-1965) Thorn. Edwin was a physician, but both he and Luanna were involved in the Deerfield Arts & Crafts movement. They produced colonial-inspired household goods, including furniture and textiles, and they sold them out of a shop here in their home.

Edwin Thorn died in 1920, but Luanna outlived him by many decades. She was still living in the house when the top photo was taken in 1959, as part of the documentation of the house by the Historic American Buildings Survey. She eventually sold the property to Historic Deerfield in 1962, and the house has since been restored and opened to the public as a museum. On the interior, each room is decorated to match a different time period, beginning in the early 18th century and going through the mid 19th century. On the exterior, the house has been painted the same shade of blue that Hezekiah Strong had used in the early 19th century, as shown in the 2023 photo.