One of the eclectic mid-19th century residences in New Haven’s Wooster Square neighborhood is the Bromley House, an exuberant blending of architectural styles that have been lovingly preserved. The history is a little murky on this residence but from research, the home was built around 1850 and was possibly a two-story flat-roofed Italianate style design with three-bay facade and off-center entrance. The home was acquired by Joseph Bromley, who appears to have added a third-story with gable roof. After the Civil War, the property was purchased by Lyman Erving Bradley, a veteran of the war who was employed as a police officer and later as private security for an area factory. It appears that Mr. Bradley, before his death in 1901, had the property expanded with a whimsical front porch, three-story side addition, and applied ornament in the Queen Anne style. The home is today a three-unit condominium, similar to the three-deckers found in cities all over New England.
Located at the corner of Wooster Place and Chapel Street in the iconic Wooster Square neighborhood of New Haven, this early Greek Revival style house is a physical landmark showcasing the evolution of the neighborhood in the 19th and 20th centuries. The residence was built around 1835 either for or purchased early on by Matthew Griswold Elliott (1805-1892), a businessman who later engaged in politics and became Vice President of the New Haven Savings Bank and a director of the New York and Hartford Railroad. In 1890, the property was purchased by Paulo “Paul” Russo, an Italian immigrant who was born in 1859, in Viggiano, Italy. His family moved to New York in 1869 and then New Haven in 1872. Paulo opened a small market in New Haven which became the first Italian-owned business in the state of Connecticut. In 1893, Russo became the first Italian to graduate from Yale Law School and he helped foster and grow the local Italian-American community around Wooster Square. After Paul Russo, Michael D’Onofrio, also of Italian descent, purchased the home and along with his wife, brothers, and friends, D’Onofrio transformed the building into a funeral home for over a decade before the house was converted to condominiums. The Elliott-Russo House is a landmark example of a hipped-roof, Greek Revival style residence with smooth flushboard siding, pilasters dividing the bays, and unique Greek meander motifs in the window lintels.
One of the earliest extant homes in western Wrentham, Massachusetts, the old Hawes Homestead on Williams Street stands as an important Georgian style farmhouse in what was once a more pastoral part of the community. The house likely dates to the mid-18th century (or earlier) and was possibly built by Daniel Hawes, who farmed the land here. Due to the varied sizes of the upper windows, the residence was most probably a three-bay house with central chimney, and the right-most bay and modern chimney were added later. The residence was later inherited by his son, and later by other heirs before the property sold out of the Hawes family in the mid-19th century.
Located on West Street in the rural part of Wrentham, Massachusetts, this historic farmhouse is among the finest homes in the community. Early records are sparse, but the dwelling appears to have been built in the first half of the 18th century by Joseph Grant and later expanded and inherited by other members of the Grant Family who owned the property in the mid-19th century and other nearby farms. Through the 19th century, the farm was owned by George Grant and later by his son, Charles Albert Grant. In the 20th century, the farm was owned by Wentworth and Anne Massie, who operated the property as an apple orchard, known as Kentuck Farm. The home has been restored by current owners and retains its large, central chimney, classical door surround, siding and windows.
In 1787, Oliver Druce (1760-1797) married Sarah “Sally” Kollock (1764-1789) and had this large residence built overlooking the Town Common in Wrentham, Massachusetts. The young couple raised one daughter here until Sarah died in 1789 at 25 years old, followed years later by Oliver, who died in 1797 at 37 years old. By the turn of the 19th century, the late-Georgian residence was owned by John Francoeur, a French Huguenot. The Druce-Francoeur House is one of the finest Georgian style residences in Wrentham, which retains its magnificent doorway framed by fluted Ionic pilasters with broken scrolled pediment above.
This stately three-story Federal style mansion on Baker Street in the lovely town of Warren, Rhode Island, was built in 1809 as a gift from a father to his daughter as a wedding gift. The house was funded by James Maxwell, of the local family of merchants and slave traders, for his daughter Martha “Patty” Maxwell and her soon-to-be husband, Samuel Randall. Judge Randall operated a school in town and published three local newspapers, the Telescope, the Clarion, and the Telegraph, all rather short-lived. In 1822, he was appointed judge of the court of common pleas for Bristol County, Rhode Island, and served in that capacity until 1824, when he was made justice of the supreme court of the state. The pop of color at the entry and the bracketed, Victorian era door hood complete the facade to give it some serious curb-appeal.
Located next door to the Rebecca Maxwell Phillips House on State Street in Warren, Rhode Island the Eddy-Cutler House remains as one of the finest Federal style residences built of brick in the charming waterfront town. Warren merchant and slave trader Benjamin Eddy purchased this desirable house lot in 1806 from John Throop Child, a town councilman and slave owner in 1774 who built slave ships before the Revolutionary War. Benjamin Eddy began construction on his mansion by 1806, and it was completed sometime before the War of 1812. Like many of the town’s wealthiest residents, Benjamin Eddy was engaged in the slave trade. Captain Benjamin Eddy was captain of at least three slave voyages, delivering 139 captives to docks in Charleston, South Carolina, in June 1806 alone. In 1808, just before the “Act Prohibiting the Importation of Slaves” he purchased and imprisoned 176 Africans – the largest number ever carried on a Warren slave ship. Nineteen died during the return voyage. When he reached Charleston, South Carolina the remaining 157 people were sold into slavery. At the time, the sale would have returned nearly $33,000. He would return home to this mansion on money profited from human suffering, a story as American as apple pie. In 1871, the Eddy Homestead was sold to Charles R. Cutler, a ship master and whaler who had many successful voyages to the Indian Ocean before working in the manufacturing of cotton cordage. The three-story, five-bay Federal style mansion of brick features a Victorian-era porch, but retains its Palladian window with blind fan and lights over the entry and belvedere at the roof. Once painted, the brick is now slowly being re-exposed, a great sight to see.
This charming house on Broad Street in Warren, Rhode Island, was built by 1783 for Rufus Barton and his wife, Prudence Cole. Rufus Barton and his family moved to New York and sold the property to Nathan Burr for $775 in 1797, who . Nathan Miller Burr sold the home to William Eastabrook two years later. Captain Eastabrook/Easterbrook had just returned from an illegal slave voyage on the “Betsey” to Africa that resulted in the enslavement of 79 Africans who were sold into slavery in Havana. He would go on to captain at least two more illegal voyages on the “Little Ann” (1806) and the “Hannah” (1807) from Bristol. These three voyages accounted for the death or enslavement of 229 people. The home has been lovingly restored by later owners, who removed the vinyl siding and replaced the cheap, vinyl windows with historically appropriate windows.
The only two-story temple-front Greek Revival style house in Warren, Rhode Island, the Judge Alfred Bosworth House on Federal Street, is believed to be the work of great architect Russell Warren. Alfred Bosworth (1812-1862) ran a law office in Warren and Providence and represented Warren in the General Assembly from 1839 until 1854 and then served as a justice on the Rhode Island Supreme Court. Bosworth was of counsel for Rhode Island in suits growing out of the boundary question between Rhode Island and Massachusetts, specifically around Fall River. Judge Bosworth died at home in 1862 and his widow, Anne, lived here afterwards. At the end of the century the Bosworth House was converted to an ice cream parlor, named Maxfield’s, which became a very popular attraction in town. The company, owned by Nathaniel and Julia Maxfield, attracted throngs of local residents every summer who would eat ice cream on the front yard of the house. Maxfield’s was even frequented by Providence writer, H. P. Lovecraft, when he was a young man. During the mid-1900s, the house served as a nursing home until 1988, when owners restored the house back to a residence and removed the asphalt siding that was added to the exterior around the time of the Great Depression.
Charles Wheaton (1761-1863) enlisted in the his local militia at just 14 years old and served in Colonel Robert Elliott’s Regiment of Artillery to protect Narragansett Bay. After the war, Charles settled in Warren, Rhode Island, and married Abigail Miller. They would have at least nine children, with one of their children, Charles Wheaton, Jr., (1791-1863) marrying Abiah Goodwin Turner in 1815, the daughter of a wealthy sea captain. Around the time of their marriage, they built this house on Liberty Street in Warren in the Federal style with a three bay facade, monitor on hip roof, and portico at the entrance with Ionic columns. By the end of the 19th century, the house was enlarged and a bay window was added over the entry portico.
Possibly the oldest building in Warren, Rhode Island, this historic farmhouse on Market Street, near the state line, has framing that possibly dates to the 1680s! After Sachem Massasoit and his oldest son, Wamsutta, sold land to Plymouth Colony settlers what is present-day Warren, Barrington, Swansea and Rehoboth, Massachusetts, the town of Swansea was established in 1667. Obadiah Bowen (1627-1710) was an original proprietor of Swansea and was listed as number 23 in the order to draw lots for the meadows on the northside of town. By 1679, he received a ten-acre house lot of uplands and salt meadow, reaching from the Palmer River inland and across Market Street to the Birch Swamp. He built a farmhouse on the rocky highland where he farmed the property until his death. His son, Thomas Bowen (1664-1743), later purchased the farm and added to it another 70 acres making the property a total of 170 acres. The old Bowen property was sold to Richard Haile in 1708 and remained in the Haile family until the late 19th century. After successive ownership in the Haile Family, the property became known as the “Judge Haile farm,” after owner, Levi Haile (1797-1854), a justice of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island, he served on the court that tried Thomas Dorr, the leader of the Dorr Rebellion, a struggle to extend voting rights in Rhode Island to non-property owners. Levi Haile made improvements on his house and farmed the land, as did his two sons. The property sold out of the Haile family in the late 19th century and remained a farm until the 1980s, when part of the property was subdivided for development and part donated to the Warren Land Trust, who maintains the property as the Haile Farm Preserve. While the farmland is protected, the old farmhouse is not protected as a town landmark nor through the community’s demolition delay bylaw.
Located in northern Willington, CT, this farmhouse on a quiet, country road, dates to before the Revolutionary War! David Lillibridge (1744-1831) of Exeter, Rhode Island, served from 15 to 17 in the French and Indian War, and manned Fort Stanwix. In 1767, when he was a lieutenant in his local militia, he converted, and entered the Baptist ministry. In 1777, he purchased a farm from Moses Holmes, but it is unclear if this residence was existing or if he built this large farmhouse. In Willington, David Lillibridge became a farmer-preacher, establishing a Baptist ministry here. The home remained in the Lillibridge family at least until the 1870s, when it was owned by Burnham Lillibridge. The Georgian saltbox residence is set back from the street and sits upon the bucolic rolling fields of the property.
Constructed of red brick and trimmed with brownstone, the beautiful townhouse at 1 Joy Street, is one of a few properties in Boston’s Beacon Hill neighborhood to have a front yard. Built in 1832, the four-story residence has its primary facade characterized by a flat entrance with a rounded bay extending upwards to the roof. Designed by architect, Cornelius Coolidge, who designed many other homes in this section of Beacon Hill, the completed house was purchased by Thomas Handasyd Perkins, Jr. (1796-1850), the eldest son of the enormously wealthy and influential Thomas Handasyd Perkins, Sr., who is considered by many to have been the most successful merchant prince of Boston’s Federal period. In 1892, the Episcopal Association purchased 1 Joy Street for use as headquarters of the diocese, and it became known as the Diocesan House. Today, the building is divided up into condominium units, providing residences just steps from the Boston Common.
Buildings of New England 