By Suzanne Harle

Built in 1763 by Dr. Joshua Lathrop, this home has been restored to its original condition which includes a nine foot cooking fireplace, a smoking chamber in the attic, and a cold storage chamber in the cellar.

Born in 1723, Dr. Lathrop graduated from Yale in 1743 and joined forces with his brother, Dr. Daniel Lathrop, to open Connecticut's first drug store, and the only one to be    located between Boston and New York at the time. They imported medicines, fruits, wine, European goods,etc. An invoice for drugs imported by them in one vessel was valued at £8,000. 
One malignant epidemic occured in 1749, which spurred the Rev. Leavenworth of Waterbury to travel on horseback to the Lathrops to obtain some medicine for his suffering people. No drug store in his area towns existed, so the Rev. made the return journey to Norwich in 3 days.

Benedict Arnold apprenticed to the Lathrops, according to Mrs Lydia Huntley Sigourney's Letters of Life, the Lathops looked kindly upon their apprectices, receiving them into their own family, and educating them to become useful members of society. Their efforts were wasted on young Benedict. He abused the cats, dogs and horses,dismembered the birds, and stole and crushed their eggs. When sent to the mill for some Indian corn, Arnold would frighten the miller by clinging to the spokes of the revolving wheel, at one time submerging, then again flying through the air, while the miller called him "an imp of the Evil One!"

Mrs. Sigourney recalled of Dr. Joshua Lathrop, "his small, well-knit, perfectly erect form, his mild benevolent brow, surmounted by the large round white wig, with its depth of curls, the three-cornered smartly cocked hat, the nicely plaited stock, the rich silver buckles at knee and shoe, the long waistcoat, and fair ruffles over hand and bosom, which marked the gentleman of the old school."

"He was a man of the most regular and temperate habits, fond of relieving the poor in secret, and faithful in all the requisitions of piety. He was persevering to a very advanced age in taking exercise in the open air, and especially in daily equestrian excursions, withheld only by very inclement weather. At 84, he might be seen, mounted upon his noble, lustrous black horse, readily urged to an easy canter."

"He constructed a nice juvenile book on the works of nature, and of nature's God, entitled 'The Father and the Son', which was stitched in course flowered-paper, and sometimes presented it as a Thanksgiving gift to the children of his friends, or any child whom he might chance to meet in the streets," recalled Mrs. Sigourney. "How well I remember his elastic step in walking, his agility in mounting or dismounting his steed, and that calm, happy temperment, which after he was an octogenarian, made him a model for men in their prime."

By Suzanne Harle

In 1687, Dr. Soloman Tracy sold the southwest corner of the Sluman lot on Canterbury Turnpike to Jonathan Crane where the latter builds a barn. In the sale of the Crane property to Israel Lathrop, the land and barn are included. In 1722, Israel gives the land, then called "a garden spott," to his son William, who in 1729, gives it back to his father, who then in 1731, deeds it to his son Ebenezer, "with shop by the side of sd highway." About 1744, William Lathrop, Jun., buys of
    Ebenezer Lathrop, his step-brother, land adjoining the "garden spott". 

William Lathrop was born in 1715, the son of Willam and Sarah (Huntington) Lathop. He married Dorcas Huntington in 1745. They had no children, and he died in 1770, and lies buried near his father in the old Norwich Town graveyard. Dorcas, the widow, died in 1804. After the her death, her nephew, Oliver Fitch, inherited the house, and in 1806 sold it to Ezekiel Huntley.

The house had 2 parlors, a bedroom, a spacious kitchen, with a wing for the pantry and milk room on the first floor; on the second floor, 5 chambers, with 1 in the attic and a large garret. The garden, according to Lydia Huntley, Ezekiel's daughter, "was skirted by a small green meadow, swelling at its extremity into a knoll, where apples flourished, and refreshed by a clear brooklet." She assisted her father in the garden, and together, they set out two apple trees in the front yard "to the rallying remarks of some of his more fashionable friends," Ezekiel replied that "it was better to fill the space with something useful, than with unproductive shade."

Lydia and her mother papered walls, painted the wood work of the parlors, and Lydia cut silhouettes and "executed small landscapes and bunches of flowers in watercolors to embellish
the rooms." For a carpetless hall on the second floor, she cut "squares of flannel, about the size of compartments in a marble pavement, and sewed on each a pattern of flowers and leaves cut from broadcloth of appropriate colors. The effect of the whole was that of rich, raised embroidery."

The house remained in the Huntley family until 1837, when it was sold a number of times in its original state until the late 1800's, when Owen Smith bought the house and altered its appearance.