Jabez Smith House
Description and history
The Jabez Smith House is located in a rural-suburban area east of downtown Groton, on the east side of North Road near its junction with Newtown Road. The house is a 1+1⁄2-story Cape style house, with a side gable roof, central chimney, and an exterior finished in a combination of wooden shingles and clapboards. It is five bays wide, with a center entrance topped by a four-light transom window. The interior follows a typical center chimney plan, and is simply finished, with original plaster and woodwork.
The house was built about 1783, presumably by Jabez Smith, the great-grandson of one of Groton's first proprietors, Reverend Nehemiah Smith. The house stands on a foundation built by Jabez's grandfather c. 1663. It is the only 18th-century farmhouse to survive on Groton's Poquonock Bridge area, which was once its principal agricultural area. Other foundations dot the property, including that of a 19th-century barn, and another of an outhouse, on which a modern reproduction has been built. The house remained in the hands of Smith descendants until 1974, when it was given to the town.
See also
- List of the oldest buildings in Connecticut
- National Register of Historic Places listings in New London County, Connecticut
References
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
- ^ "NRHP nomination for Jabez Smith House". National Park Service. Retrieved 2015-02-01.