Heritage Trail Guide

Stop #13 - Last of the Federal half houses in Stepney - The Osborn/Corning House (c 1810) and The Charles B. Wheeler House (c 1850)

Serving as anchor buildings to the Stepney Green, stand the Osborn / Corning House to the south and the Charles B.  Wheeler House to the north.  These houses are the last two Federal half houses remaining in Stepney.  The Osborn / Corning House built circa 1810 located at 418 Main Street.  A dwelling has been on this site since the 1760’s.  The Osborn and Corning families were some of the earliest families to settle Birdsey’s Plain / Stepney.  The main section of the structure is one of the oldest abutting the Green.  It was built or rebuilt shortly after the construction of the Bridgeport / Newtown Turnpike in 1801.  This house first appears on the 1823 map of the area; it was a typical 19th century private family dwelling for the Osborn and Corning families during most of its history.  It became commercial property in the later part of the 20th century.  The structure is slated to be demolished or moved in 2009 as part of the proposed Connecticut Department of Transportation Highway Project # 84102: Route 25 intersection improvements.

The house is a four-bay Federal half house style structure with a two bay southern wing and a one-story addition at the rear.  Federal half houses were built beginning in 1790 and as late as 1840.  The floor plan was designed so that additional sections could be easily added to the left or right of original structure.  Distinguishing features of a federal half house are its offset main entrance and two or three windows to the right or left of the entrance along with a central chimney.  Interior stairs leading to a second floor are located at the entrance and are secured to an outside wall.  A central fireplace could include as many as three fireplaces (one for each of the first floor rooms) and a beehive oven.

The Osborn / Corning house rests on a stone foundation, all of the windows have been replaced and connecting sheds and wings have received storefront windows for the display of merchandise.  The best-preserved element is the entry on Main Street, added in the Greek Revival Period (1820-1870).  This entrance has prominent chamfered, Tuscan-capitaled, pilasters flanking three-quarter sidelights resting on paneled bases, framing the central door.  A metal trellis obscures the view of the Greek revival horizontal cornice and along with the shed entrance roof would have been added in the 20th century.

Anchoring the Northern end of the Stepney Green is located the Charles B.  Wheeler House and built circa 1850.  According to the 1867 Beers Atlas, Charles B.  Wheeler owned a home at 440 Main Street.  Charles B.  Wheeler, born in Easton in 1821, trained as a boot and shoemaker.  Wheeler moved to “Upper Stepney” as the area was then known, in 1850, and “in 1851 began to manufacture for himself and during our great civil war manufactured boots and shoes for the United State Army, and had in his employ about seventy-five men,” reports Hurd in the History of Fairfield County.  “He is still engaged in the boot-and-shoe trade” in 1881.  The house located at One Pepper Street next to the Wheeler House originally was the Wheeler shoe factory.  Today the Wheeler house has been converted to commercial use.

Architecturally, the house is a three-bay, two and one-half story, Federal half house.  It originally had a side-hall plan.  The building was gutted and remodeled in 1988 but still retains the interior chimney and a fireplace.  Like the Osborn / Corning house it rests on a stone foundation and all fenestration has been replaced and enlarged for office and commercial use.  It has retained its entry, which consists of paired fluted pilasters, framing the doorway and its three quarter sidelights.  A horizontal transom tops the doorway.  The metal trellis, storm door and portico would have been added in the 20th century and is not indicative of Federal half house architecture.