Haddam Quarter Road, north side (0.3 m West of Carriage Drive)

Shaded by evergreens, this house stands surrounded by cleared fields, much as it has for the past century.

• Record ID: 22
• Address: Haddam Quarter Road, north side (0.3 m West of Carriage Drive)
• Current Owner: Soobitsky, Michael
• Name of Building: Michael Soobitsky House
• Historic Name: William Southmayd House
• Download PDF of Original Record

Notable Features

The William Southmayd House is a 2! story side-hall plan, Greek Revival residence with extensive additions. The main block of the structure, measuring 28′ x 31′, contains a facade divided into three bays. The first story of the facade contains an offset entry with full entablature, a 4-paned transom, and a 4-panel door (which appears to be original). The windows on the first and second stories of the facade are six-over-six.
Rather than a full pediment the house has small molded cornice returns. The gable contains a small rectangular six-over-six window. The main block is post-and-beam framed and sheated in clapboard. The asphalt-shingle roof is topped by a brick central chimney. Extensive additions have been made to this house. The major alteration, dating from the second or third decade of this century, consists of a gable-roofed side ell, measuring 19 1 x 26 1 built in the Arts and Crafts style, this addition boasts a three-window dormer extending half the length of the roof and containing three-aver-three sash. The windows in the lower story are recent replacements dati ng from the early 1960s. At the east end of this addition is a cobblestone end-chimney. A modern two-car garage has been added to the east end of this ell. Other alterations to this structure, dating from its remodelling in 1962, are a 28 1 x 22′ single-story shed-roofed addition to the northeast corner of the main block and a small 15 1 x 15 1 entryway to the ell and garage. To the east of the house stands a large 2 story barn which has been converted to residential use.

Historical or Architectural Importance

This is one of the four houses in the Haddam Quarter associated with the Southmayd family. It stands on the site of an earlier house built by James Bates in the eighteenth century, which was sold by his son Daniel Bates in 1809 to Isaac Newton, son of Burwell Newton. Isaac, who was born in 1770, married Anne Southmayd and in 1816, on moving from Durham to Lenox, Massachusetts, sold the property, consisting of 56 acres, a dwelling house and two barns, to Joshua Stow and Nehemiah Hubbard, two Middletown merchants. They sold the house a few days later to Joseph Southmayd. On his death the propertypassed to his brother William. William married Mary A. Tucker in 1833. In 1860 William’s widow gave the house to her three sons, Samuel B. Southmayd, Daniel Coe Soutbmayd, and William P. Southmayd. According to Fowler the old Bates house was razed bySamuel and the present structure erected in its place. Between 1868 and 1873 Samuel and William sold their shares in the farmstead to their brother Daniel (1841-1913). He lived there until his death. In 1914 his estate sold the property to David A. Williams of East Hampton, who  sold it the following year to Peter Nilsson of Brooklyn, New York. Nilsson held the property until 1955 when it passed into the hands of its present owners.

Because the original farmhouse has been so extensively altered, the major architectural significance of this structure stems from its remarkably pristine rural location. Its historical significance stems from its association with the Southmayd family, one of the most prominent ones in the Haddam Quarter during the nineteenth century.