Old House Blog

Dr. Andrew Harris House // c.1820

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This house is located across from the iconic Prudence Crandall House in Canterbury, Connecticut, and is another excellent example of a high-style Federal home in the town’s main village. Built in circa 1820, this residence was the home of Dr. Andrew Harris (1787-1840), one of two physicians in Canterbury in the early 19th century. After Dr. Harris’ death, the property was owned by Hiram and Nancy Waldo, who altered the house with the addition of a Victorian observatory at the rear, two-over-two sash windows, and an entry porch with paired door entrance.

Levally-Crandall House // c.1820

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This attractive Federal-style Cape house is located in Canterbury, Connecticut, and is one of the very finest such houses of its type in the state. The house was built by William Levally, a successful millowner in town who married Patience Horton just prior. William died unexpectedly in 1841, and the property was inherited by Patience, who then married Hezekiah Crandall, also a millowner, who was also the brother of Prudence Crandall, the teacher who operated the famous African American girls boarding school in Canterbury Center in the 1830s. Hezekiah and his sister later migrated to Kansas, after essentially being pushed out of town. The Levally-Crandall House stands out for its proportions, exterior moldings, and ornate entry with pilasters, sidelights, and a molded, keyed arched transom. The house has been lovingly preserved by the successive owners, who clearly take pride in owning such a piece of history.

David Nevins House // c.1746

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This house across from the Town Green in Canterbury, Connecticut, is believed to have been built by David Nevins, Sr. (1729-1758), a merchant who settled in Canterbury from Nova Scotia, Canada. Nevins tragically died in 1758 when overseeing the reconstruction of a bridge spanning the nearby Quinebaug River. It is said that while standing on a cross-beam, giving directions to the workmen, David Nevins lost his balance and fell into the river and was swept away and drowned. The property remained in the Nevins Family until 1842, upon which, it served as a parsonage for the Congregational Church, just across the street. The clapboard exterior, small-pane sash, center-chimney plan, and five-bay facade of this house give it architectural significance as a representative example of 18th-century Connecticut architecture. The stately Georgian doorway with swan’s neck pediment was installed by a local house restorer based upon physical evidence uncovered during the house’s restoration (and removal of Victorian-era porch) and while may be conjectural, it enhances the already beautiful old home.

Samuel Pellett House // c.1752

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The Samuel Pellett House in Canterbury, Connecticut, dates to the mid-18th century and is an excellent example of a Colonial-era home in this part of the state. Research in the land records suggests that this house may date from the time of Samuel Pellett’s second marriage in 1752 to Hannah Underwood. The couple planted two sycamore trees in front of the house to signify husband and wife but one was lost in the 1938 hurricane while the other survives to this day. According to historians, Sarah Harris Fayerweather, the first Black student at Prudence Crandall’s school nearby, worked as a servant in this house, then owned by Jedediah Shepard. The Pellett House is an excellent example of a Colonial Georgian home in Connecticut, with clapboard siding, center chimney, five-bay facade and small pane sash windows. 

Turnpike House // c.1810

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This house in Canterbury, Connecticut, is known as the Turnpike House and dates to the early 19th century. A great example of a Federal style residence, the symmetrical, five-bay home exhibits pair chimneys, multi-light double-hung windows, and an elaborate center entry with sidelights and fanlight transom. The house was built along the Windham Turnpike (now Connecticut Route 14), which was an early toll road established in 1795. Behind the main block of the house is a squat gambrel-roofed ell, that is believed to be made from an older house that previously stood on this site, perhaps dating as early as 1745. According to tradition, this early house, which was also at one time supposedly used as a jail, was the home of Rev. Dr. James Coggswell when he ran a school for boys in Canterbury. One of his pupils at that school was Benedict Arnold, the infamous turncoat.

Huntington Homestead // c.1715

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The Huntington Homestead in Scotland, Connecticut, was the birthplace and boyhood home of Samuel Huntington (1731–1796), a Founding Father, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a distinguished statesman during the Revolutionary War and early Republic. The remarkably well-preserved site includes an eighteenth century house on its original foundation surrounded by acres of farmland and is now protected as a museum. The house was built sometime between the transfer of land in 1715 from Deacon Joseph Huntington to his son Nathaniel, and Nathaniel’s marriage in 1723 to Mehetabel Thurston. As originally constructed, the house consisted of a two-story structure with an end chimney on the west end and one large room on each floor. By the time of Nathanielís death in 1767, the house had been doubled in size with the addition of two rooms west of the chimney, giving the house its current five-bay form. The Georgian style Colonial-era home features a symmetrical facade, twelve-over-twelve windows, and a saltbox roof and is one of the finest Colonial-era homes in this part of the state.

Benjamin F. Greene House // 1868

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Built for Benjamin Franklin Greene, a second-generation mill owner of the Greene and Daniels Thread Company in Central Falls, Rhode Island, this large, Second Empire style house is one of the finest of its style in the entire state. The house is one of only a few high-style residences left from the mid-nineteenth century in Central Falls, when industrialization’s full expansion provided manufacturers such as Greene with fortunes to be expended on their houses. Designed by Providence architect Clifton A. Hall, the ornamentation of the Greene House is extraordinary for its elaboration, relieving the severity of the simple, block-like shape of the house. The central door is set under a flat-roofed porch which is supported by trios of Corinthian columns. Above the porch a trio of round-head windows is set under a “sunbonnet” gabled dormer which caps the central pavilion, is supported by brackets, and encloses a round-head window with a small balcony. What a spectacular home!

Forrester-Peabody House – Salem Home for Aged Men // 1818

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Overlooking the Salem Common, this 1818 Federal style dwelling has served as everything from a single-family home to a boarding house and ultimately an assisted living facility, showcasing that old buildings can always be repurposed into new uses. The home was built for Captain John Forrester, son of Simon Forrester, one of Salem’s most successful merchants. The Forrester House was purchased in the 1830s by George Peabody, who added the one-story ballroom wing. Peabody lived in the house until 1892 and the building later housed the Salem Club, a men’s social organization with over two-hundred well-connected members. In the 1920s, it became the Bertram Home for Aged Men, named after Captain John Bertram, who founded the organization in 1877 as a charitable residence providing housing and socialization space for aged men in Salem. The home had fallen into disrepair when it was closed in 1988, to reopen two years later as the first free-standing assisted living community for men and women in Massachusetts, today known as the Bertram House.

White-Lord House // 1811

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The White-Lord House at 31 North Washington Square in Salem, Massachusetts, is one of a row of stately brick, Federal style mansions built for wealthy 19th century merchants overlooking the bucolic Salem Common. This house was built in 1811 for merchant Stephen White by master mason Joshua Upham (1784-1858), adjacent to his brother’s mansion across the street. It was later the home of merchant John W. Rogers from 1831 to 1844 and merchant Thomas P. Pingree from 1844 to 1858 before it was acquired by Nathaniel Lord in 1858 and members of the family continued to occupy the house for the next ninety years. George R. Lord (1817-1891) was a lawyer and assistant Clerk of the Courts. The exterior of the White-Lord House has changed little beyond the switch to the two-over-two sash windows sometime in the latter half of the 19th century.

Conway-Trumbull House // 1848

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Built in 1848 for Rev. James Conway of Salem, this stunning Greek Revival home on Winter Street blends architectural integrity with a bold pop of color! James Conway was born in Ballinamore, Ireland and moved to the United States and was ordained as a Catholic priest. He was a missionary with the Penobscot Tribe in Maine, before preaching in Lowell and later in Salem, Massachusetts. When he moved to Salem, he had this house on Winter Street built with flush board siding, paneled side-hall entry, and moulded window surrounds with corner blocks. Conway would later sell the property to Edward Trumbull, a Salem merchant and later to Ebenezer Putnam. It was likely Putnam who added the oversized second-story bay window on the facade of the house.