New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Want to buy a piece of Connecticut history?
About 120 CT homes sold this year or on the market date back to the 18th century
It’s the last thing many visitors spot as they exit the Nathaniel Pratt homestead in Essex: an antique brass key lodged in an interior lock for the front door. Being able to own a piece of colonial Connecticut history filled with those tangible touches to the past prompted the owners to buy the South Main Street house during the pandemic real estate boom of 2020, and make it their own.
And from Greenwich to Somers, there are again a limited number of opportunities for others to do the same in the spring real estate market of 2024.
Of the roughly 12,000 Connecticut homes sold this year or now on the market, about 120 houses date to the 18th century, with two-thirds of that number thought to have been built by 1776. For some of those buildings, their histories are proudly proclaimed on plaques at the front door; for others, the colonial heritage is only hinted through saltbox architecture or other design elements of the era.
With unique layouts and historic links, antiques capture the imagination of many house hunters today, according to Susan Malan, a broker in the Essex office of William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty whose listings include the Nathaniel Pratt house on South Main Street. That is all the more so in getting the deed and keys to Connecticut’s oldest abodes.
“They sometimes need some special attention — and they deserve it,” Malan said. “They are beautiful. They are part of what made the country. There is a whole story behind every antique house.”
The story of the Nathaniel Pratt house and by extension historic Essex is evident from the moment one walks in, from the wide floorboards of the period stained the color of coffee; to exposed, roughhewn posts and beams dating back to the house’s construction; a fresco painting over a fireplace mantle depicting a historic vista of the Connecticut River; to the narrow dining table fashioned from planks, lengthy enough to accommodate the large families of the day.
But over the years, owners of the historic Essex house have added 21st century amenities, from an updated kitchen to an in-ground spa and “cocktail” pool for staying cool in hot weather. That’s the case for many houses of the era in Connecticut, with wide latitude afforded to the owners to make modern renovations, even for buildings that carry historic plaques.
Mother Bailey to Rochambeau
Heading into the third week of April near the zenith of the spring selling season, Glastonbury was the hottest market in Connecticut for 18thcentury real estate, with five houses listed for sale or otherwise sold there this year, with original structures dating before 1800. Coventry, Madison and Wilton had four each, as tallied in a CT Insider review of statewide listings, with three apiece in Ledyard, North Stonington, Pomfret, Redding, Roxbury, and Warren.
In all, nearly half of Connecticut towns and cities had at least one property making the 18th century cut as of the third week of April. Likely the number is higher, as some town “field cards” on homes record different dates of construction from what owners have documented themselves from their own research.
That is the case for the priciest property on the market today with a structure dating back to the 1700s — Hedgelawn Farm in Roxbury, listed for $8.5 million, with a converted tobacco barn as its centerpiece abode on a hilltop perch that commands views of the surrounding countryside. The property includes a smaller guest house which the original structure owner, Rick Distel, believes dates to 1762 based on historic records at the Gunn Museum in the neighboring town of Washington. Distel is a real estate broker with Compass Connecticut.