Guilford Ct Historic Homes: Henry Whitfield Old Stone House

The Henry Whitfield Old Stone House in Guilford is the oldest house in Connecticut

, and the oldest stone house in New England still standing. The Reverend Henry Whitfield was a Puritan from Ockley, Surrey who - together with twenty five families of his congregation - fled England to escape religious persecution by the Church of England under Charles I in 1639.

As a result of advocating church reform, Henry Whitfield was censured as a dissident by the High Commission Court in 1638. Shortly thereafter he resigned his post and gathered together his followers who were his true believers to travel to the New World and establish a colony.

Puritans had been fleeing England for the last nineteen years since the landing at Plymouth. Whitfield and his group first came to the New Haven Colony and consulted with Whitfield's Puritan friend the Reverend John Davenport, the colony's founder. Davenport advised them to purchase land from the Menunkatuck Indians midway between the New Haven and Saybrook Colony at the mouth of the Connecticut River.

They settled the Guilford, Connecticut area in the fall of 1639, and immediately began construction of the house. The Henry Whitfield Old Stone House was built not only for his residence, but according to records also as a fort for the community in case of attack.

The two story home has thick, fortress like walls two feet thick - which is also a testament to how much rock was available at the location for building. Accounts from the time say the local Menunkatuck Indians helped the colonists in the construction of the house by transporting the stones from nearby quarries to the building site. The mortar used to cement the stones was made from yellow clay and crushed oyster shell for lime, a technique used at the time due to the lack of more conventional building materials on the frontier.

It served as a temporary meeting house and place of worship as the new colony was being established. The house has a great hall, a hall chamber, and three chambers on the second floor. The roof is steeply pitched at a sixty degree angle with casement windows in the style of post-medieval domestic architecture found in England, but rare in the New World. For years it was the centerpiece of the Guilord community, and a shelter for people traveling between the New Haven and Saybrook colonies.

By 1650, however the political situation had changed in England with Oliver Cromwell in power, Charles I beheaded and the persecution of the Puritans ended ushering in what was known as the "Counter Migration" of Puritans returning to England. Whitfield made plans to return to England and died there in 1657 and is buried in Winchester Cathedral.

The Henry Whitfield Old Stone House became one of the first house museums in the area and became the embodiment of the Colonial Revival movement in the late 1800 and early 1900's. The Old Stone House was an early poster child of historical preservation activists, and since 1899, is probably the first house museum owned by a state government. The house was restored in 1902-04 and in the 1930s, and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1997.

The Henry Whitfield Old Stone House and State Museum, is a 7- to 10-minute walk south of the Guilford Town Green at 248 Old Whitfield Street. Come see what life was like for the early Puritan settlers of Connecticut in the 1600's. You can find out more about Guilford, Connecticut's most significant historic home by visiting their website at whitfieldmuseum@snet.net or by calling 203-453-2457.

by: Steven Penny

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