Located on Suffield’s iconic Main Street, this enchanting 19th century residence stands as a testament to the impact and role the tobacco industry had on the community historically. The residence seen here was built for Charles Loomis of the Loomis Family, who made their fortune in the tobacco farming and rolling industry in Suffield, Connecticut. Charles F. Loomis used his tobacco money to have this asymmetrical Italianate Villa constructed in 1862. The home features a prominent three-story tower capped with iron cresting, broad overhanging eaves with brackets and some stickwork, and a gorgeous door with arched transom and sidelights.
This large Italianate style residence on Main Street in Suffield, Connecticut, was built in 1860 by John Wells Loomis for his son, George. George ran a cigar shop in a separate building on the lot, selling rolled cigars from tobacco that his business harvested and rolled. The mansion features a belvedere atop the low sloped hip roof with broad overhanging eaves. George was set to run the family business after his father, George. In 1881, two years after his father’s death, George Loomis sold the tobacco business founded by his father and moved to New Haven. In 1912, Polish residents bought the house, and it became the rectory for St. Joseph Church.
This stunning home sits on Main Street in Suffield, Connecticut, and was apparently built as a center-chimney home in the 18th century. By the 1840s, it was purchased by John Wells Loomis (1805-1879), and altered to fit the then-fashionable Greek Revival style, replacing the center chimney with two smaller chimneys, new pilasters were added to the corners and at the entry. John Loomis was the head of the Loomis family which made a fortune in the tobacco industry in Suffield, rolling and shipping products as far away as California. He operated his cigar business in a large warehouse, now gone, behind the house. Before his death, John Loomis built his son George a house nearby, knowing that his son would carry on the business, which he did until a couple years after his father’s death, until he sold the business and moved to New Haven. The Loomis House is one of the finest examples of a Greek Revival residence in the community.
Dr. Asaph Bissell was born into the wealthy Bissell family which started here when John Bissell, the progenitor of the family in America, came from Somerset, England, and landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1628. He became one of the settlers of Windsor, CT. His descendant, Asaph Bissell (1791-1850) became one of Yale’s earliest medical graduates and built this stately Greek Revival style home on Main Street in Suffield, Connecticut, where he practiced medicine. Dr. Bissell often made house calls from his home right on Main Street until his death in 1850, after which, it was inherited by his eldest son, Charles Bissell. The house is Greek Revival in style with its entrance on the side elevation sheltered by a Classical porch, all facing southwards. The street-facing facade is four bays with large corner pilasters, a massive entablature, and pedimented gable-end with fanlight set within it.
This lovely brick, Federal style farmhouse was built in 1823 for John and Mary Fuller in rural Suffield, Connecticut, in 1823 and operated as a farm by the family for over fifty years. The town of Suffield purchased the house and farmland before the 1880s for use as the town’s poor farm. Poor farms (also known as almshouses) were often rural houses where paupers, mainly elderly and disabled people, were supported at public expense. The land was available for the elderly and workers to harvest crops for sale and sustenance. One of the “residents” at the poor farm was “Old Cato” a formerly enslaved person who was owned by Maj. John Davenport, a lawyer and politician in Stamford. Davenport offered Old Cato his freedom in 1812 if he enlisted to serve in the War of 1812, which he did. By the 1820s, he moved to Suffield CT, and worked at the West Suffield Congregational Church, paid to ring the bell at the church, likely also maintaining the property. He eventually ended up at the poorhouse and died, estimated to be over 100 years old. The old Fuller/Poor House was sold by the town in 1952 and converted back into a single-family residence.
Built in 1824 by Hezekiah Spencer, this beautiful Federal style residence is located on South Main Street in the charming town of Suffield, Connecticut. Hezekiah Spencer (1795-1873) lived and raised his family here with his wife, Cecelia, who farmed the land behind. During the 20th century, the house was occupied by Annie Mearkle, a poet who wrote under the name of Angela Marco. The Spencer-Mearkle House is a great example of a Federal style residence in a side-hall form, with its gable-end oriented to face the street. The house retains its original leaded glass fanlight in the gable and glazed door surround.
One of the older homes on Main Street in Suffield, Connecticut, the Moses Rowe House was built in 1767 was later “modernized” to its present appearance. The house was constructed as a two-story Georgian home with minimal detailing, as the family home of Moses Rowe (1733-1799), his wife, and nine children. According to historical maps of the area, the home appears to have been purchased by Horace Sheldon, who in the 1830s, modified the home in the Greek Revival style, increasing the height of the home, adding side porches and the entablature at the roofline.
Located on South Main Street in Suffield, Connecticut, this stunning Second Empire mansion showcases the tobacco wealth seen in the town in the mid-to-late 19th century. Local legend states that in the early 1800s, a Cuban man arrived into town and was hired by a local farmer to grow tobacco and roll cigars for sale. Decades later, dozens of farmers in Suffield erected tobacco barns and cultivated tobacco to be rolled in cigars and shipped to communities all over the east coast. One of the first men in Suffield to box the cigars as a pack for shipping and sale was Henry Phelps Kent (1803-1887). With his success, Henry Kent purchased a large lot on the town’s Main Street and hired local architect, John C. Mead, to design a mansion to display his success in business. The large Second Empire mansion features flush-board siding, a full length porch, and a projecting mansarded tower with convex roof. The home was later owned by Samuel R. Spencer, a politician who served as a Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut, the first as a blind man. The home is now operated as a bed & breakfast “Spencer on Main”, named after its second owner.
Built in 1855 as the West Suffield Village school, Academy Hall served as one of Suffield’s public school buildings until 1913, when consolidated schools were built in town. Like in many New England communities, the old, wood-frame school building was repurposed, and due to the large agricultural community in Suffield (it was a major grower and exporter of tobacco), the old Academy Hall was occupied by the local Grange club, a social organization that encouraged families to band together to promote the economic and political well-being of the community and agriculture. The handsome structure is owned by the non-profit West Suffield Village Improvement Association, and as of April 2026, the building is leased to the Suffield Historical Society, and is available for events. The structure features a Classical door surround, corner pilasters, entablature, and a large square cupola at the gable roof.
Nestled in the heart of West Suffield, Connecticut, the West Suffield Congregational Church remains as a unique example of the typical village church form from the first half of the 19th century. The church was established in 1743, when after decades of having to travel to the center of Suffield to worship, families in the western part of town established the Second Ecclesiastical Society. Within a year, a meeting house in West Suffield was built as a rustic structure. As the congregation thrived, a second meeting house was built in 1775 on the site of the present building, which too was rebuilt, this structure, in 1839 using the earlier foundation. The present church was dedicated in 1840 and it stands as a stunning example of a Greek Revival house of worship, with projecting portico supported by fluted Doric columns, paneled parapet, and multi-stage tower.
Located on Mapleton Avenue in the historic farming community of Suffield, Connecticut, Mapleton Hall stands as a remarkable testament to the town’s agricultural heritage and success. Originally constructed in 1883 as Central Hall, the building served as a gathering place for farmers’ meetings, civic events, and later the local Grange, reflecting the importance of agriculture in Suffield’s development. As its popularity grew, rear wings were built in 1896, expanding the hall to accommodate larger crowds drawn by community events and meetings. Architecturally, Mapleton Hall is a distinctive example of late Victorian-era rural meeting hall, featuring elements of the Queen Anne Stick/Eastlake styles, along with decorative woodwork, a prominent bell tower, and trussed gable that have been carefully preserved through decades of restoration. The building was sold in 1999 to the Suffield Players, a local theater group, who have preserved the building, using it for their theatrical productions.
A rare example of the Art Deco architectural style in New Haven, the former Lupoli Brothers Funeral Home on Chapel Street in Wooster Square is more than meets the eye! This Art Deco jewel box was originally constructed in 1841 as a large, single family home and modernized nearly 100 years later in its current design. In 1841, Henry Lucas Hotchkiss (1810-1861), a businessman and president of the L. Candee Rubber Company, had a two-story Greek Revival style home built on this lot for his wife, Lucy. The home was originally two stories, but a third floor was added in the 1860s, around the time the rear stable (still extant) was constructed, for another owner. In the early 20th century, as the Wooster Square neighborhood became a center of Italian-American life and business in New Haven, the property was purchased by Liberato Lipoli (1862-1934) who moved to Connecticut from the Piedmont region of Italy. A year after their father’s death, sons Mario, Gennaro, Antonio and Louis Lupoli, established a funeral parlor catering to the local Italian American community. In 1935, the Lupoli Brothers hired local architect, Lester Julianelle to reimagine the former Hotchkiss House in a modern style. The result is the refaced building with Classical Revival and Art Deco elements including the iconic entry reading, “Lupoli Bros” in the iconic lettering. The Lupoli’s closed the parlor here in 2008 and the building was converted to eight condominium units.
The Willis Bristol House on Chapel Street in the Wooster Square neighborhood of New Haven, Connecticut, is one of the finest and most architecturally distinctive residences in New England. Built in 1845 for Willis Bristol (1804-1875), a partner in the shoe manufacturer of Bristol & Hall, the home was designed by Connecticut architect, Henry Austin, who designed many of the other great mansions in Wooster Square around this period. The Bristol House is Italianate in style with Exotic Revival detailing which has often been described as Moorish Revival, but it is actually more Indian Revival, an extreme rarity in 19th century New England. It is believed that Henry Austin was influenced by an illustration of columns and capitals at the Ellora Caves in India published by Henry Repton in Designs for the Pavilion at Brighton (1808) and through this worked picked up a fascination with Indian architecture that was to influence his designs in the mid-19th century. Many of Austin’s designs in Wooster Square feature these Indianesque columns on their porches. The Willis Bristol House remained in the family until 1876 and was subsequently used as a congregation house, school, beauty parlor, and presently as apartments. The owners should be commended for preserving and protecting this ornate and unique residence for all to enjoy.
Buildings of New England 
