History: 1862 litchfield turnpike

Located on the west side of the turnpike above the intersection with Bond Road, this house faces east towards Konold's Pond and West Rock across the highway. A picket fence borders the roadway.

1862 Litchfield Turnpike is a three-bay, gable-to-street house that combines the Greek Revival and Italianate styles, not uncommon for a house of this date. Among its style features from the Greek Revival period are the multi-paned rectangular window in the facade gable, the pronounced cornice returns, and the relatively low pitch of the roof. The Italianate portico has very unusual open Tuscan posts, a shouldered-arched frieze, -1 and a series of small decorative brackets under the cornice of its flat roof. The door itself is framed with plain pilasters. The two-story wing on the left elevation may be a later addition. It has an open Victorian porch across its facade, a smaller three-paned gable window, and an enclosed porch at the rear, connected to a carport. The shed roof of the porch is supported by turned posts, joined with a spindle course Many of the operable double-hung windows in the main block contain 6-over-6 sash, which is consistent with the period of construction, and those in the wing have 2-over-2.



Historically associated with the Bishop family for much of its history, this fine well-preserved example of a Greek Revival/Italianate house was constructed for Henry F.. Bishop. His father, Benjamin Bishop (1807-1885), who had bought this 1+-acre property in 1856 from Jacob Avery, lived at #1880 farther north on this road. In 1865 Henry F. Bishop (1846-1876) returned from the Civil War. In May of 1868 he married Catherine Sperry (1842-1925), the daughter of Enos Sperry, and the house was completed in December of that year. They had two sons, Charles H. and Burton. F. Henry Bishop was a carpenter, but, according to a diary kept by his sister, Josephine, he hired George Peck to build his house. Although there appears to little similarity today, Peck's house at 486 Amity Road was to be a model. Henry and his father, a master mason, apparently laid up the cellar walls. Following Henry's premature death at age 29, his widow, who had life use, married Dwight E. Todd (1834-1901) in 1877 and they had two :children, Leonard and Julia. When she died, the property reverted to her surviving son by her first marriage, Burton F. Bishop, then a dentist in New Haven. This property left the family when Burton sold it to Loretta C. Doolittle, the wife of Herbert S., in 1925, but Burton's sons later lived in the neighborhood. B. Henry Bishop built a new house at #1866 in 1941 and the property at #1880 descended to his brother, Joseph A. Bishop, in 1949.