Home Survival

Home Survival

Every home has a history, but precious few can boast a run that predates the Revolutionary War.

Here’s a window into Connecticut and America’s past, courtesy of five literal Colonials on the market right now.

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167 N Stonington Rd, Mystic
3 bd | 2.5 br | 1,650 sq ft | 0.73 ac | $525,000

This Mystic home’s description as an “antique gambrel saltbox,” dated to about 1740, has a nice ring to it, as do four fireplaces, wide-plank stained pine floors, a “major restoration… executed with exceptional care” (in 2001) and a recent price cut of $25,000.

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211 Center Rd, Easton
3 bd | 3 br | 3,335 sq ft | 2.20 ac | $749,000

This home has a name: The Reverend James Johnson House, after the “founding father” of Easton who studied at Yale and had this house built in about 1760. Retaining “original details, hardware, mantels and wide plank floors made of pumpkin pine and walnut” inside—and, outside, “several historically significant structures including the cobbler’s shop, threshing room, a carriage shed and a chicken coop”—the home was at some point “expanded to include a modern kitchen with vaulted great room, a three-car garage and a one-bedroom apartment.” Oh, and “the main house sits stately upon a hill, overlooking a 10-acre nature preserve.”

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45 Great Pasture Rd, Redding
4 bd | 3 br | 3,982 sq ft | 1.83 ac | $849,900

Built around 1745 and updated, technically, in 1857, the interior of this “Federal-style colonial” opens with a “stunning… entry hall with exquisite millwork, a gracious sweeping staircase and original wide plank oak floors that run throughout the house.” A stone-floor sun room overlooks the property, which is perched above a “designated scenic road” and includes a lovely heated in-ground pool with stone patio.

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276 Leavenworth Rd, Shelton
4 bd | 2 br | 1,440 sq ft | 5.30 ac | $1,250,000

Built in 1750, expanded in 1900 and turned into an organic farm for 30 years, this homestead’s rustic personality echoes emphatically across the grounds, where “a farm store, licensed bakery, craft barn, two greenhouses, a wood shed, and a four-seater outhouse”—plus “700 lavender plants, a colonial herb and flower garden, 30 blueberry bushes, raspberry and blackberry patches, … a one-acre vineyard of Baco Noir grapes” and a “small pond”—make a new farm venture not only possible but maybe inevitable. The sales listing offers some relevant history, too: “The farmhouse, named the Major Agur Judson house, was built by Captain David Judson as a wedding gift for his son, Major Judson, a Revolutionary War official and militiaman. The house witnessed Lauzun’s French cavalry passing in 1781 on their way to Yorktown, Virginia.”

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172 Roast Meat Hill Rd, Killingworth
4 bd | 3.5 br | 4,002 sq ft | 11.90 ac | $2,500,000

This 1756 home has been “carefully and completely renovated” by a housewright, with the grounds getting a similar treatment from a landscape architect. The interior also “comes elegantly furnished” by a designer who’s made Architectural Digest’s top-100 list multiple times. Showstoppers include a “great room with its massive stone fireplace, antique wooden timbers and 30-foot-high ceiling” (pictured up top), a dining room with a paneled mural on three sides and a quasi-bedroom with built-in bunks that would be fun for the kids (just remember to lock the adjoining wine cellar). Outside, which spans “six-plus acres of irrigated gardens and fields with an additional five acres left in its natural state,” a barn has been turned into a garage-cum-rec room with a connected patio and fire pit, while another patio, incorporating enough stonework to build a medieval fort, provides a deck for the main house. Oh, and there’s a beautiful little pond.

Written by Dan Mims. Images sourced from the linked real estate listings. Top image features 180 Stevenson Road, New Haven.

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