Sheldon Tavern, Litchfield, Connecticut:
This late Georgian style mansion at 73 North Street was first built in the Colonial style for Elisha Sheldon in 1760. Sheldon was a Colonel serving under General George Washington in the American Revolutionary War. His regiment was the 2nd Continental Light Dragoons, a group also known as Sheldon’s Horse. They were the first cavalry regiment called into action during the war. On the night of September 20, 1780, Sheldon’s Tavern hosted George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and Marquis de Lafayette as they were traveling from Hartford to Tappan, New York. (In Tappan, Washington and company attended the hanging of British spymaster John André on Oct. 2, 1780.)
Around 1795, United States Senator Uriah Tracy purchased the property and hired architect William Sprats to remodel the house. Sprats was a British officer taken prisoner with Burgoyne’s army at the Battle of Saratoga in 1777. Wartime architectural commissions led Sprats to remain in Connecticut after the Revolution. Sprats added a central pavilion and a Palladian window to Sheldon Tavern.
Uriah Tracy’s son-in-law was James Gould, the partner of Tapping Reeve at the Litchfield Law School. Therefore, Sheldon Tavern has also been called the Gould House. The home is notable for its grandeur, its size and for having shingles rather than clapboards. The property is situated on six plus acres of private grounds within Litchfield Historic District – the first historic district in Connecticut, approved by a special act of the General Assembly in 1959.
Go here to visit the Litchfield Historical Society website: https://www.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org/
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