The Bidwell House

The Bidwell House, a Greek Revival style hotel, was built in 1822 by Solomon Bidwell on one hundred forty acres of land, and an ell was added around 1850 by his son Lyman Bidwell. The property later passed to Lyman's son and daughter-in-law, Charles and Lydia Bidwell, who operated it until Charles's premature death in 1881 at age 26. During the mid-19th century it also served as the South Coventry Post Office, and a ballroom on the third floor was said to have been a popular gathering place. Double porches were added around 1908, and when the trolley started in 1909, the Bidwell House became a stop on the line running between Willimantic and Lakeside Park at Lake Wamgumbaug. By the 1880s most of the original one hundred forty acres had been sold. In a 1901 seven page handwritten mortgage, the property was listed as consisting of 2 1/2 acres, a 33 room hotel, barn, auto garage, shed, hen coops, the right of using two springs of water, and the hotel's contents, including salt and pepper shakers and chamber pots. After Lydia Bidwell Josselyn died in 1918, a judge determined that Charles Bidwell's sisters were the rightful descendants, and in 1920 the estate of Charles Fitch and Mary Bidwell Clark sold the property to Edward Navens, ending the Bidwell family's connection to it. Navens and his family operated the hotel for 16 years, added a Pan-Am gas station, and in 1933 leased part of the lower level to Frank Parker, who opened a tavern. Judd Fitch became owner in 1937, later tavern owners included Leo T. Flaherty in 1944 and Fred Flaherty in 1956, and after the property was sold in 1968 to T. Leo Flaherty, the tavern was converted to a package store. Since 1982 the property has changed hands four times, and in the early 1980s the hotel was converted to private apartments.

South Coventry, Connecticut · United States