The John Hollister House is a historic house at 14 Tryon Street in the
South Glastonbury village of
Glastonbury, Connecticut
Glastonbury ( ) is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, formally founded in 1693 and first settled in 1636. It was named after Glastonbury in Somerset, England. Glastonbury is on the banks of the Connecticut River, southeast ...
. Built about 1675, it is the town's oldest surviving colonial structure, built by one of its early settlers. It was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
in 1972.
Description and history
The John Hollister House stands on the west side of the village of South Glastonbury, on the north side of Tryon Street (
Connecticut Route 160) just west of Roaring Brook. It is a -story wood-frame structure, with a gabled roof, central chimney, and clapboarded exterior. Its front facade is five bays wide, with a center entrance and a slightly overhanging second floor. The roof has a shallow pitch, and has a deeper than normal eave over a simple box cornice. The window bays are 19th-century enlargements of what were originally smaller openings, and the present siding is laid over what is believed to be original period
clapboard
Clapboard (), also called bevel siding, lap siding, and weatherboard, with regional variation in the definition of these terms, is wooden siding of a building in the form of horizontal boards, often overlapping.
''Clapboard'' in modern Americ ...
s. A two-story gabled ell extends to the rear.
The house was built about 1675 by John Hollister, Jr., whose father is credited with building Glastonbury's first house (which no longer stands). Local lore says that the currently-standing house was built in the meadows west of its present location, and was moved to its present location about 1720; there is no documentary or architectural evidence to support the idea. The house was originally built as a two-room structure with chimney, and its chimney structure suggests that the
lean-to
A lean-to is a type of simple structure originally added to an existing building with the rafters "leaning" against another wall. Free-standing lean-to structures are generally used as shelters. One traditional type of lean-to is known by its Finn ...
structure on the rear is a later addition. In the 19th century a portion of the leanto was raised a full two stories in height.
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See also
*List of the oldest buildings in Connecticut
This article lists the oldest buildings in the state of Connecticut, United States of America. The dates of construction are based on land tax and probate records, architectural studies, genealogy, radio carbon dating, and dendrochronology. Buildi ...
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hollister, John, House
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut
National Register of Historic Places in Hartford County, Connecticut
Houses completed in 1675
Houses in Hartford County, Connecticut
Glastonbury, Connecticut