New England Colonial Architecture

Shaw-Thurston Double House // c.1760

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This pre-Revolutionary double-house is located at 128-130 Prospect Hill Street in the architectural historian paradise that is Newport, Rhode Island. This property was originally platted and purchased in 1752 by Anthony Shaw. By 1760, local papers advertised the property for sale, giving a built-by date. In 1777, the house was owned by Anthony Shaw Jr. and John Thurston. The property was purchased before the Civil War and went into single-ownership, which has remained to this day. The house, while seemingly a single-family, is preserved lovingly by the owners, who even retained the second front door!

Wright Homestead // 1767

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This large, brick gambrel-roofed Colonial home in West Goshen, Connecticut, was built over decades beginning before the American Revolution and has remained in the same family ever-since! In 1767, Captain Jabez Wright (1737-1813) married Martha Baldwin of Goshen, and began constructing this farmhouse of brick. When the war broke out, he fought in New York, he also served as captain of a company of Connecticut militia, turning out to repel the British forces at New Haven. He would largely complete the home by 1787, and ultimately died in 1813. After successive ownership of generations of the Wright family, the property was owned by Henry G. Wright (1831-1917), a farmer who represented Goshen in the state legislature and held many town positions. The first Methodist sermons in town were also held in the home. Henry Wright died at 86 years old on this property, after being attacked by a bull. When entertaining guests, he showed others a prized bull, and possibly fell into the pen, and was trampled and attacked. The Wright Homestead is unique for its brickwork with bonds and burned headers, resembling many Colonial-era homes in Virginia, but this house can be found on the back roads of Goshen, Connecticut!

Sabbathday Lake Shaker Meetinghouse // 1794

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The last active Shaker community in the world can be found in New Gloucester, Maine. The Shakers migrated to Colonial America in 1774 in pursuit of religious freedom and developed from the religious group called the Quakers, which originated in the 17th century. Both groups believed that everybody could find God within him or herself, rather than through clergy or rituals, but the Shakers tended to be more emotional and demonstrative in their worship. Shakers also believed that their lives should be dedicated to pursuing perfection, continuously confessing their sins, and attempting a cessation of sinning, including sex and marriage. They built 19 communal settlements (so far I have featured two: Enfield Shaker Village and Canterbury Shaker Village) that attracted some 20,000 converts over the next century and maintained their numbers through conversion and adoption of orphans, numbers which have dropped to just three active members in 2024! The Sabbathday Lake community was established in 1782 and grew to a size of 1,900 acres with 26 large buildings by 1850. This building, the Shaker’s meetinghouse, was built in 1794 with all materials and labor supplied by the community. The small but significant structure remains a landmark in the community and is occasionally open for tours.

Rev. Samuel Foxcroft House // 1765

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Built in 1765 for Rev. Samuel Foxcroft (1734-1807), this grand two and a half story house was the first major frame dwelling in New Gloucester, Maine. Its large scale and such fine mid-18th century architectural features as the triangular doorway pediment  and quoins at the corners make this a house befitting  the community’s first minister. Born in Boston in 1735, Foxcroft was the son of the Rev. Thomas Foxcroft, pastor of the First Church of Boston from 1717 to 1769. The younger Foxcroft graduated from Harvard in 1754 and answered the call of the New Gloucester Congregationalists ten years later, a brand new town in the wilderness of Maine. He was ordained in the blockhouse, a defensive structure from attacking native peoples, in January of 1765 and continued his ministry in the town until 1793, having the first purpose-built meetinghouse completed in 1773. The last years of his life were spent in poor health and he died at his home in 1807 at the age of 72.

Isaac Appleton Homestead // 1756

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One of the oldest (if not the oldest) extant houses in Ipswich, New Hampshire is this Colonial home on Appleton Road, which gets its name from the first owner, Isaac Appleton. Deacon Isaac Appleton III (1731-1806) was one of the town’s original settlers who came to New Ipswich from Ipswich, Massachusetts. He held the office of town clerk and of selectman and was a deacon for thirty years. He responded to the call to arms from Concord to fight in the American Revolution. Deacon Isaac Appleton III was the father of Samuel Appleton, a wealthy Boston merchant; and Nathan Appleton, a merchant and politician in Boston and head of the famous Appleton Family which would influence Boston business and politics for generations. Samuel Appleton would fund and establish the Appleton Academy in New Ipswich, the second oldest in New Hampshire after Phillips Exeter Academy. The Isaac Appleton Homestead remains in a great state of preservation and sits just outside the town center.

Image from real estate listing.

Walpole Meetinghouse // 1772

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The Old Walpole Meetinghouse is a rare extant example of a Colonial meetinghouse in New England. The building is located in South Bristol, Maine, in the village of Walpole, and was constructed in 1772. The Walpole Meetinghouse is a little-altered example of a late colonial church in Maine (and one of the oldest actively used churches in the state.) The building originally housed a predominantly Presbyterian congregation of Scottish immigrants, but as the presbytery was based far away in Boston (Maine at this point was still a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts) the congregation eventually became Congregationalist. The Georgian-style building is clad in wood shingles, originally stained painted a brownish yellow to blend in with the birch leaves as to camouflage it among the trees. The building was painted white in the 20th century. It is one of a few extant meetinghouses in New England that utilized shingle siding instead of the quintessential New England clapboards. It is said that these are still the original shingles. Inside, the doors all enter the single main chamber, where the ground floor is dominated by a series of box pews and the elevated pulpit is sited at the north wall. It is maintained by the South Bristol Historical Society, and is still used occasionally for summer services.