Welles Chapman Tavern, Glastonbury
– Daniel Sterner, HistoricBuildingsCT.com
The town of Glastonbury, located in Hartford County, is in central Connecticut on the eastern banks of the Connecticut River. Founded in 1636 as part of Wethersfield and called Pyaug, the area was incorporated in 1693. Dating back to 1655, Glastonbury has the oldest continually operating ferry in the United States. It runs between South Glastonbury and Rocky Hill. During the Revolutionary War, Glastonbury produced gunpowder, and in the eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, Glastonbury was a shipbuilding town. In the 1840s, the J.B. Williams Company opened a commercial soap manufactory in town that later became known for such twentieth-century products as ‘Lectric Shave and Aqua Velva. Today, Glastonbury is primarily a suburban residential community.
Featured
The Smith Sisters, Their Cows, and Women’s Rights in Glastonbury
By refusing to pay unfair taxes, these siblings became national symbols of discrimination suffered by women and of the struggle of the individual against government. …[more]
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Places
Connecticut Department of Transportation. “Rocky Hill - Glastonbury Ferry,” 2016. Link.
“The Historical Society of Glastonbury,” 2016. Link.
The Historical Society of Glastonbury. “Welles-Shipman-Ward House,” 2016. Link.
Documents
“Broadside: Household Goods at Auction on Wednesday, Apr. 23 at the Smith Sisters’ Mansion House, Glastonbury, 1884,” 2013. Connecticut History Illustrated, Connecticut Historical Society. Link.
Connecticut State Library Digital Collections. “Glastonbury - WPA Architectural Survey,” 2016. Link.
“Glastonbury Collection.” Connecticut Digital Archive, n.d. Link.
Books
Chapin, A. Glastenbury for Two Hundred Years a Centennial Discourse, May 18th, A.d. 1853: With an Appendix, Containing Historical and Statistical Papers of Interest. Hartford, CT: Case Tiffany and Company, 1853. Link.
Hubbard, Robert. Glastonbury. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2012.
McNulty, Marjorie. Glastonbury: From Settlement to Suburb. Glastonbury, CT: Historical Society of Glastonbury, 1995.
Historical Society of Glastonbury, and Daniel Hedden. The Glastonbury Express. Historical Society of Glastonbury, 1983.
Stiles, Henry, ed. The History of Ancient Wethersfield, Connecticut Comprising the Present Towns of Wethersfield, Rocky Hill, and Newington, and of Glastonbury Prior to Its Incorporation in 1693, from Date of Earliest Settlement Until the Present Time - History. Vol. 2. New York: Grafton Press, 1904. Link.
Stiles, Henry, ed. The History of Ancient Wethersfield, Connecticut Comprising the Present Towns of Wethersfield, Rocky Hill, and Newington, and of Glastonbury Prior to Its Incorporation in 1693, from Date of Earliest Settlement Until the Present Time - History. Vol. 1. New York: Grafton Press, 1904. Link.
Wethersfield and Her Daughters: Glastonbury, Rocky Hill, Newington, from 1634 to 1934. Hartford, CT: Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company, 1934.
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