Edwin Eaton (1803-1873) was a lumber dealer and master carpenter in Chaplin, Connecticut when he built this home at the edge of the village center. Eaton built this large residence around 1835, after his marriage to Caroline Gaylord in 1831. It is said that he built more than half the houses in Chaplin Center, several meeting houses in other towns, and for a time, sold the timber for the Spragues’ when they were building industrial villages in nearby towns. The Eaton House is presently (2024) being renovated, hopefully the original high-quality woodworking is restored!
The area that is now Chaplin, Connecticut was settled in the 18th century. The impetus to separate the community occurred due to the difficulty of area residents in reaching the churches in nearby town centers. Benjamin Chaplin (1719-1795), bequeathed funds for the establishment of a church near his (now no longer standing) home. A village center developed around the church, and the town was incorporated in 1822. The village is unusual in Connecticut for its relatively late development, and because the center is not near usable water power, and was bypassed by railroads, it was not affected by later industrialization. The main street is extremely well-preserved and a visual link to 19th century Connecticut. In 1840, the town erected this one-story Greek Revival building to serve as the town hall. The gable end reads as a pediment with the walls constructed of smooth vertical boards. The town outgrew this building and it became the town’s museum after the present town hall building was constructed in the northern part of the village. The museum closed and the building appears unused today. Hopefully the town can find a way to use the structure and maintain it.
One of the most unique houses in Connecticut is this massive Federal style residence located in the small town of Eastford. Built next to the Congregational Church of Eastford (1829-2023), which burned down in 2023 by arson, the massive house has been known as both the Benjamin Bosworth House and Squire Bosworth’s Castle due to its first owner, Benjamin Bosworth (1762-1850). According to the Bosworth Family, the house was built in 1800 by Bosworth was a wealthy merchant, who hired Vini Goodell, a local carpenter to design and build the large Federal home. The house was completed by 1801 when the local Masonic group met in the building. As Bosworth was also a merchant, he used the basement as a storeroom. The house is also unusual for its monitor roof, a rarity in Federal period construction, which reads like a second structure on the house, due to the building’s size. After Bosworth’s death, the house was occupied by his niece, and was later purchased by Elisha Grant Trowbridge in 1897. Trowbridge was a grand-nephew of General Nathaniel Lyon (1818-1861), a local hero who was the first Union general killed during the Civil War. Trowbridge, an engineer, lived here until he died in 1963 at the age of 96. Later owners have had the monumental task of restoring and maintaining this behemoth of a house, to great success.
I don’t think any state does the Federal style as well as Connecticut (Massachusetts is a close second)! This is the Sumner-Carpenter House, a high-style example of a Federal residence that is located on the backroads of the small town of Eastford, Connecticut. The house was built in 1806 for John Newman Sumner (1775-1831) who resided here until just before his death. The elaborate Federal period house was sold out of the family. After trading hands a half-dozen times, the property was purchased by David and Harriet Carpenter in 1881. The property remained in the Carpenter family for generations, and remained as such after Orlo Carpenter (1865-1938) was killed in the collapse of a barn during the hurricane of 1938. Architecturally, the house has all of the hallmarks of the Federal style, with the symmetrical main facade five bays wide, with a center entrance flanked by wide sidelights, and topped by a fanlight transom and corniced entablature. The window above the entrance is in the Palladian style, with a rounded center window flanked by narrower sashes. The house is very well preserved and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its architectural quality and preservation.
When the town of Ashford laid out a road across the land of Abner Richmond, he saw it as an opportunity to gift the newly organized plot across the road to his eldest son, Michael and his new wife, Polly as a wedding gift. Michael Richmond (1786-1881) built this Federal style house across the street from his father (see last post), likely employing the same builder, who employed similar design elements for both homes. In early life Michael learned saddle-making and afterward engaged in the manufacture of cloth, also axes. He was also engaged in staging and turnpike building, and in the mercantile business, until he retired at 60 years of age. He was a man of all trades! The house is now home to BOTL Farm, a pasture-based, sustainability-focused livestock farm that raises pigs, lambs, goats, and chickens ethically. Gotta love seeing farming coming back to Connecticut’s “Quiet Corner”!
This high-style Federal house sits across from the former Westford Baptist Church in Ashford, Connecticut. The house was built around 1803 for Abner Richmond (1761-1834) and his wife Eunice, who purchased 92-acres of land here one year earlier. Abner descended from John Richmond (1594-1664), one of the original white settlers of Taunton, Massachusetts in 1637. About ten years after he built his farmhouse, the town of Ashford paid the Richmond’s money for hardship caused by laying out a road right in front of the homestead. This 1812 occurrence possibly allowed the couple to invest further into the property, where they converted some of the rooms into a tavern, which was later accessible by the new Boston and Hartford Turnpike. The turnpike began in East Hartford and made its way through Ashford before winding its way to Boston. The house was documented as having 19th century stenciling on the walls, which survived underneath wallpaper (go figure). The new owners have clearly given the Richmond House some love and care, down to the perfect paint color.
The Baptist church in Westford (a village in northern Ashford, yes it’s a little confusing) was formed in 1780. Its growth in the town can largely be attributed to Reverend John Rathburn, who had moved to town from Stonington, and was ordained as its pastor in 1781. A membership of fifty-four was reported in 1795. By the late 1830s, the village thrived due to the success of local businessmen and later, thanks to the Westford Glass Company, located nearby. Members donated to build this Greek Revival style church on a prominent corner in town, replacing the former meetinghouse. By the late 20th century, the church saw dwindling membership and merged with another in town. This church was sold to a neighboring property and is privately owned today.
Built in 1825, the Ashford Academy school building is the last remnant of what was Ashford, Connecticut’s once thriving town center. The taverns, church and businesses which were once located here have almost entirely been razed, leaving just this school building as the remaining structure. Ashford Academy was founded about 1825 when a group of citizens raised funds toward adding a second story to a schoolhouse then under construction in the town center. Only one teacher was hired per term, and some years there were no academy classes at all. The last academy session was held in 1875, though the building continued in use as a district school until 1949. The building is significant, not only for its siting and connections with the town’s early days, but also architecturally as a high-style school building for a more rural setting.
One of the most historic houses in Ashford, Connecticut was listed for sale! The house at 14 Westford Road dates to 1710, when John Mixer purchased the property which at the time totaled 100 acres, and applied for a license to operate a tavern. John Mixer was born in 1668 in Watertown, Massachusetts and married Abigail Fiske in 1695. Mixer worked as a tanner in Watertown before moving to Connecticut, becoming the first settler of Ashford in 1710. Mixer became Ashford’s first Town Clerk, Treasurer, Tavern Keeper, Select Man, and Deacon. Mixer and his family would eventually move to Suffield, Connecticut, but the old tavern remains in impeccable condition, largely due to its later owners and preservation as an inn and restoration in the 1920s.
In 1921, the Catholic Diocese of Hartford purchased a Federal style farmhouse with 135-acres of land in Ashford, Connecticut, with the intention of establishing a new parish in the area. The Diocese assigned Father William J. Dunn, a Connecticut native and son of Irish Immigrants, to this daunting task. Since they had no church building at the time, Father Dunn partitioned off a section of his own home to serve as a chapel for about 100 worshipers, until the purpose-built St. Philip the Apostle Church was constructed in the 1930s. Father Dunn convinced summer resident Paul Chalfin to design the new building. Chalfin was not an architect, but he was an architectural designer whose best known building is the Villa Vizcaya in Miami, Florida. Chalfin was openly gay, and his hiring by the Catholic Church to design one of its churches in the 1930s is noteworthy. There were certainly several Irish immigrants and people of Irish descent in the congregation, but many parishioners came from small villages in Slovakia. The dome is a typical feature of churches in those villages and Chalfin included it in his design as a tribute to them. Due to material and construction costs during the Great Depression, members of the church largely built the church themselves with rocks acquired from stone walls and farms nearby. The church was completed in 1937.
Buildings of New England 