The Hebron Historical Society

Think About it

If you could choose any building you have seen on your tour to live in which one would you choose and why.

Conclusion – When you get home, imagine that you are living in Hebron in 2123, draw a picture of what looking toward Hebron Center from St. Peters’ Church might look like then. Be sure to include street lights, how people travel, signs, and how any of the buildings and landscaping you have seen today would look 100 years from now.

Meet Your Neighbors QR Tours funded by the Hebron Greater Together Community Fund in conjunction with the Hebron Historical Society.

Please note that most of the structures you will see are privately owned. Please respect these properties by viewing them from the sidewalk.

Courtesy of the Town of Hebron

From John Warner Barber Connecticut Historical Collections 1838

Hebron has some extraordinary examples of religious architecture. St. Peters church built in 1826 is one of them. Compare the 1838 sketch above with what you see today. What are the similarities and what are the differences?

The history of St Peters goes back almost 100 years before this 1826 building. In 1734, just 26 years after the town was incorporated, residents began to argue about the location of where a new meetinghouse should be located. Its location determined where roads for shipping farm produce would go. Religion may have been a factor, but ultimately economics won. In 1747, an arsonist burned the old meetinghouse (Congregational Church) which stood where the traffic light for Routes 85 and 66 is located. Hebron divided into two groups. Those who supported keeping the meetinghouse in the center remained Congregationalist. Those who wanted to move the meetinghouse further north became Anglicans or Episcopalians. They built a church on Godfrey Hill, north of Hebron Center where the burying ground is located on Route 85. In 1826, the Episcopal Society relocated to the center of Hebron and built this church.

Think about it

What are ways people living in a town can resolve their differences?

Saint Peters’ Graveyard – Rev. Samuel Peters’ grave. (Google Maps Location Plus Code: MHGQ+9W Hebron, Connecticut)

Watercolor of St. Peters Burying Ground by Clara Pendleton 1890

Samuel Peters was the first rector of St. Peters’ church when it was located on Godfrey Hill on Route 85 north of Hebron Center. He was born in Hebron in 1735. In 1760, Samuel Peters traveled to England and was ordained. This gave him a very worldly perspective while living in a rural town. He was a wealthy individual and owned at least 7 farms in Hebron which he ran as a plantation with the labor of two slave families – Cesar Peters and Pomp Mundo. Burnt Hill Park located on East Street was part of his land holdings which included 600 acres of farmland, horses, cattle, and 4000 fruit trees. As an Anglican minister, Rev. Peters was pledged to support the British crown. As events that led up to the Revolution War developed, so did Rev. Peters’ life. In 1774, after the infamous Boston Tea Party destroyed the privately owned tea of the British East India Company, Connecticut towns held meetings to support the people of Boston. Hebron held the first town meeting. Rev. Peters spoke so forcefully about the lawlessness of destroying private property that Hebron voted not to send aid to Boston. As a result, the Sons of Liberty organized a mob and so terrorized Rev. Peters that he abandoned his property in Hebron and fled to England. He would spend the rest of his life trying to regain his losses. In England, he wrote the first published history of any of the thirteen colonies. His 1781 General History of the State of Connecticut is the foundation of some of Connecticut’s best loved folklore including the Frogs of Windham, the Wethersfield Onion Maidens, and the notorious Blue Laws of Puritan New Haven.

Think about it

Were the Sons of Liberty acting legally when they threatened to tar and feather Rev. Peters to get him to change his political views?

If you had different views than your neighbors, would you abandon all you owned, if you were threatened?

Where to go next

Continue walking south along Church Street / Route 85 toward Hebron Elementary School

Meet Your Neighbors QR Tours funded by the Hebron Greater Together Community Fund in conjunction with the Hebron Historical Society

Courtesy of the Town of Hebron

The four houses along the east side of Church Street represent some of Hebron’s outstanding early 1800 Federal Style houses. David Barber who was a wealthy land owner and merchant owned much of this land around the time of the Revolutionary War. With the change from English to American money, he forfeited some of this land to merchants he did business with in Boston. Several local men purchased part of the property and as Hebron Center grew, they sold off land for building lots. Some people who lived in Hebron Center farmed, but most earned their living by practicing trades, practicing law, medicine or running stores. Unlike today, during the 1800’s all Hebron people earned their living in Hebron, no one commuted. The people who did not farm, but lived in Hebron Center were responsible for some of the institutions and way of life that exist in Hebron today.

Think About It

If you were not a farmer, but earned your living in another way, how would your life be different?

What would you do with the spare time you had from not cutting hay, making butter and cheese, or having to tend to a large number of livestock?

Where to go next

Walk south along Church Street / Route 85

Meet Your Neighbors QR Tours funded by the Hebron Greater Together Community Fund in conjunction with the Hebron Historical Society.

Please note that most of the structures you will see are privately owned. Please respect these properties by viewing them from the sidewalk.

Courtesy of the Town of Hebron

Watercolor by C. L. Pendleton 1893

This is one of the few brick houses with its broad side to the street built in Hebron. It was built around 1806 with the wooden trim executed by Joseph Trumbull Burnham. John S. Peters’ father, a brother of Rev. Samuel Peters, supported the British cause during the Revolutionary War and left his family in Hebron during the War. The impoverished family found it hard to make ends meet, but John S. Peters was able to study medicine by apprenticing with doctors. After traveling through New England to find a location for his practice, he finally settled on his hometown of Hebron. Here he treated Hebron’s sick residents including Native and African Americans. Many times, his account book lists treating patients and then canceling their debts because they were too poor to pay. In 1816, a one-story addition was added to the house which became his doctor’s office. One of Dr. Peters’ medical students Ezekiel Skinner became a founder of the African country of Liberia.

John S. Peters eventually entered politics and in 1832 was elected Lieutenant Governor. As Governor of Connecticut in 1833, John S. Peters promoted industry, education, and the newly invented railroads. In 1833, a young woman named Prudence Crandall opened a school in Canterbury Connecticut for African American students coming from all over New England. Unfortunately, she was forced to close the school the next year due to wide-spread prejudice. Today, Prudence Crandall is Connecticut’s State Heroine. Gov. Peters probably approved of Miss Crandall’s efforts, as is evident in the following story. It is recorded that to cut government costs, the Governor rode on public horse drawn transportation. One day while he was riding from Hartford to Hebron, the coach passed an elderly African American woman and the governor signaled the driver to stop, so he could offer the woman a ride. The driver, as well as the other passengers, were bewildered by this request. The woman was the descendant of Cesar Peters who had once been enslaved to Gov. Peters’ uncle Rev. Samuel Peters. Governor Peters employed Cesar Peters and his sons to farm his land located across from Hebron Elementary School and felt it appropriate to offer Liddie Peters a ride.

Think about it

Why do you suppose Dr. Peters forgave the debts of some of his patience?

With a Loyalist father who supported the British during the Revolutionary War, what does the fact that John S. Peters became Governor of Connecticut say about American politics?

Where to go next

Walk south along Church Street / Route 85 toward St. Peters’ Church

Meet Your Neighbors QR Tours funded by the Hebron Greater Together Community Fund in conjunction with the Hebron Historical Society.

Please note that most of the structures you will see are privately owned. Please respect these properties by viewing them from the sidewalk.

Courtesy of the Town of Hebron

C. L. Pendleton 1893

This house was built in the early 1800’s and is one of the few brick houses built in Hebron with the gable facing the street. It was a popular style during Hebron’s most prosperous years. Many wooden houses in Hebron were built in this style. When it was built, this section of Hebron had become one of the most fashionable areas to live. Notice in the watercolor that even a house in Hebron center had out buildings on the property. Look at the front door and see if you can see similar front doors along church Street. Keeping up with fashion was very important to people living in Hebron Center and as a result many of Hebron Centers houses share similar features. In 1856, this house was the home of the Episcopal minister of St. Peters. By the 1860’s, a parsonage (located at # 60 Church Street) was built by the Episcopal Congregation.

Thinking about it

Why would a house in Hebron Center have a barn? What sort of animals might be kept there?

Where to go next

Look at the neighboring house to this one as you walk south along Church Street / Route 85

Meet Your Neighbors QR Tours funded by the Hebron Greater Together Community Fund in conjunction with the Hebron Historical Society.

Please note that most of the structures you will see are privately owned. Please respect these properties by viewing them from the sidewalk.