The Colonel Charles A. Converse House is a striking Gothic Revival villa located at 185 Washington Street in the heart of the Chelsea Parade Historic District. The house and barn were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.
The house is a 2½ story wood frame Gothic Revival structure, with asymmetrical massing, vertical board siding, and a polychrome exterior. The front façade is dominated by a hip-roofed tower on the right, in front of which is a distinctive seven-sided porch. Front-facing windows are set in peaked-gable openings, and there is decorative woodwork attached to the steep Gothic roof gables. The interior features fine oak flooring, walnut paneling in the dining room, and a fireplace surround with Dutch landscape in tile. The barn appears to be of similar age to the house, which was built circa 1870.
This house is important because it is characteristic of domestic building of the 1870s when High Victorian Gothic was the prevailing fashion in architecture. The vertical proportions, irregular shape, and polychrome exterior combine to enforce an effect of calculated restlessness
It was the home of Colonel Charles A. Converse and his wife. Converse was an industrious, creative and generous man who did much to advance both manufacturing and the arts in Norwich. He is best known for founding the Falls Commonwealth Works and providing funds for the Converse Art Building at the Norwich Free Academy.
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The Old House Life
The Downtown Norwich Historic District is located in the heart of downtown Norwich. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. The district includes 115 contributing buildings, of which more than half were built in the 1800s.
Norwich was settled by English colonists in the 17th century and its first wharf was built in 1684. It developed rapidly as a shipping port, with economic activity focused near the waterfront at the confluence of the Shetucket, Yantic, and Thames Rivers. Due to its proximity to the port the downtown developed quickly.
The downtown’s architecture is dominated by Greek Revival and late 19th and early 20th century architecture, which was built when the city was an important point for the shipment of goods by either rail or ship. By this time, the city’s economy had diversified to include banking, textiles, and other water-powered industry.
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Public Domain
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United States Park Service, 1970
CLK Hatcher, 2011
The Dr. Joshua Lathrop House is an historic house at 377 Washington Street in Norwich, Connecticut. Built about 1750, it is a good example of Georgian residential architecture. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, and is a contributing property to the Norwichtown Historic District.
The Dr. Joshua Lathrop House is located in Norwich’s historic Norwichtown area, on the east side of Washington Street just south of Lathrop Lane. The house has two parts, an older saltbox section, and a more typical Georgian 2-1/2 story frame structure at the front, with a side gable roof and central chimney. The house is built into a hillside, such that the front basement is fully exposed, and the main entrance is now made through an opening in the basement wall, below the original entrance. The façade is four bays wide, with an irregular placement that has the entrance at the center, two bays to its left, and one to its right. The lean to section at the rear is also two stories in height, with irregular placement of windows and doors. The interior retains many original features, including wooden paneling and fireplaces.
The house was built circa 1750 by Joshua Lathrop (1723-1807) across the street from his older brother, Dr. Daniel Lathrop’s house. They jointly operated an apothecary shop, located on the main street near the Lathrop family homes. According to Info Source 2: “This was the only apothecary’s establishment on the route from New York to Boston, and of course Dr. Lathrop had a great run of custom, often filling orders sent from the distance of a hundred miles in various directions”.
Benedict Arnold was an apprentice to Dr. Joshua Lathrop and Dr. Daniel Lathrop from 1754-1761. It is believed that Benedict Arnold lived in the Dr. Joshua Lathrop house during his apprenticeship with the Lathrops.
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United States Park Service
The Dr. Philip Turner House is an historic house at 29 West Town Street in Norwich, Connecticut. Built in the late 17th century, it is one of the oldest houses in Norwich. It is a well preserved example of vernacular First Period architecture.
At the time of the Revolutionary War it was owned by Dr. Philip Turner, a leading surgeon for the Continental Army. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 and is located within the Norwichtown Historic District.
The Dr. Philip Turner House is a colonial-era “half house”, 2½ stories tall and three bays wide, with clapboard siding and a large chimney behind the entrance, in the rightmost bay. A rear lean to section, giving the house a classic saltbox profile, is a addition; some of its exterior siding is of significant antiquity, as it is fastened with hand-cut nails and exhibits feathering typical of early clapboards. The interior is two chambers on the ground floor, with a parlor in front and kitchen in the rear.
Dr. Philip Turner served at the Battle of Bunker Hill in June of 1775 as a military surgeon. He also served as First Surgeon for the Connecticut troops in the Connecticut Camp in Roxbury Massachusetts during the war. Later, he served at Ticonderoga as assistant surgeon of the Army post there.
In 1777, Congress appointed Turner as Director General, later appointing him Surgeon General of the Eastern Department. He remained there until the end of the war.
Dr. Turner was the first surgeon in America to perform the operation of tying the femoral artery, which supplies blood to the leg.
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Compass.com , 2019
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