The Historic Homes of Litchfield 
PART I 
By JEANIE GOULD LINCOLN 
I N the northwestern section of the State of 
Connecticut, at an altitude of twelve hundred 
feet above sea level, on a broad plateau sur¬ 
rounded by hills, lies the beautiful old town of Litch¬ 
field. New England is blessed with many towns 
rich in historical lore which have added to themselves 
the modern rush of the twentieth century, but Litch¬ 
field, sitting serenely among her hills, forbids the 
invading trolley car and the noisy whistle of com¬ 
merce, secure in her traditions and her long and 
distinguished line of ancestry. It would be almost 
impossible for a traveler to find another town like 
Litchfield, 
which fairly 
breathes the 
atmosphere of 
the homespun 
age. The sig- 
nificance of the 
name itself, 
“Field of the 
Dead,” would 
indicate that 
the spirit of 
past makers of 
history, lying 
in quiet grand- 
e u r in the 
quaint old 
cemetery in 
East Street, 
still hovers over 
the township 
they loved so 
well. 
When all are 
so worthy of 
chronicle it becomes somewhat difficult to specify. 
The gallant Ethan Allen, than whom there is no 
more picturesque figure in American history, was 
born in Litchfield, and the house of his birth is still 
standing. Other names, familiar in Litchfield, and 
illustrious in Revolutionary days, are the Wolcotts, 
Tallmadges, Tracys, Seymours, Beebes, and many 
others. General Washington’s favorite corps, “ Shel¬ 
don’s Regiment of Horse,’’was enrolled and re¬ 
cruited there, and Colonel Benjamin Tallmadge was 
a gallant officer of that command. It was he, to 
whom Major Andre was brought, a prisoner, and in 
his letters, preserved in the Litchfield Historical 
Society, Colonel Tallmadge relates his sorrow for the 
military necessity which compelled the execution of 
the brave, but ill-fated, British officer. In later days, 
Llarriet Beecher Stowe, whose famous book, “ Uncle 
Tom’s Cabin,” did much to augment the flame of 
feeling against slavery, was born at the home of her 
father, Reverend Lyman Beecher, on North Street. 
It was a Litchfield wag who, knowing well the eccen¬ 
tric ways of this family, gave this epigram to posterity: 
“There are but three kinds of people in the world: 
saints, sinners, and the Beechers!” 
The plateau of the old village is divided into 
four principal streets: North and South, East and 
West Streets, as they were laid out by the pioneer 
colony in 1721. 
In olden days 
there was 
gentle rivalry 
between North 
and South 
Streets: North 
Street being 
the home of the 
T a 11 m a d g e s, 
Tracys, Dem¬ 
in g s, B u e 1 s, 
and Goulds; 
and South 
Street, where 
lived the Wol¬ 
cotts, Reeves, 
Seymours, San¬ 
ford s , and 
Woodruffs. 
Both streets are 
broad avenues 
with double rows 
of stately elms, 
and circular 
driveways which lead to the doors of each fine old 
mansion. 
By act of Congress in 1792 a post-road was con¬ 
structed by which the United States mails were 
carried from New York to Hartford and also to 
Albany. This led to making Litchfield the stopping 
place, on the way from New York, for the members 
of the legislature at Albany, and the arrival and de¬ 
parture of the post-coaches was the event of the day. 
Indeed, the coach-and-four system obtained after 
the Housatonic railroad was built, for the only way 
in which to reach the town as late as 1857 was by that 
time-honored conveyance, which met the trains at 
Cornwall, where, after a mid-day dinner at "the old 
inn, very leisurely taken, the stage-coach carried you 
THE OLD MANSION OF OLIVER WOLCOTT 
55 
