The Oliver Filley House is a historic

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but a ...

house at 130 Mountain Avenue in Bloomfield, Connecticut, United States. It was occupied by Captain Oliver Filley and his family, a

tinsmith A tinsmith is a person who makes and repairs things made of tin or other light metals. The profession may sometimes also be known as a tinner, tinker, tinman, or tinplate worker; whitesmith may also refer to this profession, though the same w ...

who served as a captain in the Connecticut

militia A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...

during the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...

Oliver Filley Senior and Junior

Shortly after the end of the Revolutionary War, Oliver Filley Sr. purchased land and a house in Wintonbury. He died at the age of 39 in 1796, leaving a part of the family farm to his 12-year-old son Oliver Jr. Filley received only nine acres () at the time of his father's death, but would add to his holdings, and eventually built up the farm to include the original holdings. He started a tinsmith business in 1806, a year after marrying Annis Humphrey from nearby Simsbury. His business grew, and he expanded his operations with manufacturing and warehousing in

Elizabethtown, New Jersey Elizabeth Township, also called Elizabethtown, was a township that existed in Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, from 1664 until 1855. The area was initially part of the Elizabethtown Tract, purchased from the Lenape on October 28, 16 ...

. Filley operated out of the New Jersey location, until the War of 1812 forced him to return to Connecticut. The Federalists of New England were not in favor of the war; as a consequence, the Connecticut troops were not placed under federal control. Filley was appointed captain in 1812, and put in charge of forty militiamen, but he did not see any combat as the British did not reach this far north.

The House

Filley built the house for his son Jay in 1834. It is a stone building, built in a Greek Revival style. The walls are made of rubblestone and multi-colored traprock. The floor plan is unusual, consisting of two intersecting wings. The primary living quarters were in the west wing. Filley's decision to build a stone house was partly motivated by the desire of his son, but he was also aware that a stone house was becoming a status symbol in the area. It would become the third stone house in Bloomfield, following a house built two year earlier by David Grant, and one built a year earlier by

Francis Gillette Francis Gillette (December 14, 1807 – September 30, 1879) was a politician from Connecticut, USA. He was the father of actor and playwright William Gillette and politician and editor Edward H. Gillette. Gillette was born in Old Windsor, ...

. The house, which was added to the National Historic Register because of the work of Sharon Yusba Steinberg, is now owned by the town of Bloomfield, which is planning a restoration project.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Filley, Capt. Oliver, House Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut Houses completed in 1834 Houses in Hartford County, Connecticut Greek Revival houses in Connecticut Bloomfield, Connecticut National Register of Historic Places in Hartford County, Connecticut

Oliver Filley Senior and Junior

The House

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