Main Street Sea Captains’ Homes

Collection history

Hedgehurst stood at 141 Main Street, at Second Avenue. Local historian Dan Shine identifies it as Captain John M. Richards’ ornate home and distinguishes him from the nearby Richards lumber family. The house was demolished; the 2022 account records a surviving curbside stone sill. [WHSC-003]

Harborview, 65 Main Street at First Avenue, was built for Benjamin F. Richards and his bride in 1892. Its fine interior woodwork reflected the resources of a prosperous lumber household. The West Haven Historical Society recognized the house as a local historical treasure in 2018. [WHSC-003]

The house at 81 Main Street belonged to Henry H. Richards. His widow Esther and painter Edward Wheeler lived there in 1913. Later transfers recorded in the local history include a sale to Mettie B. Platt in 1936 and to William and Sophie Greenhouse in 1944. [WHSC-003]

The 1940 town history supplies a different kind of evidence about the Richards household: before 1868, Methodist preachers and laypeople from New Haven held services locally, and interdenominational weekly meetings took place in Henry H. Richards’ home. The passage identifies him as a Congregational church member. It does not give that meeting house an address, so it supports the household’s civic role without independently proving the modern street number. [WHSC-002]

The same period history describes H. H. Richards Lumber Company at 37 Water Street, with dock facilities on the West River channel. It records especially strong business during the apartment-building boom of 1923–1927, when the yard employed 45 workers, followed by liquidation in early 1939 and sale of assets to Batter Building Materials Company. These details show the commercial setting behind the Main Street lumber-family houses. [WHSC-001]

The sources disagree about the company’s early management and end. The 1940 history names Edward A., George O., and Benjamin F. Richards as founders in 1849, records a major fire on April 16, 1909, and separately describes the 1939 liquidation. The 2022 column attributes the original business to Henry and describes a fire in 1939. Those accounts should remain distinguishable until business records and contemporary newspapers resolve the discrepancy. [WHSC-004] [WHSC-003]

A sea captain’s house connects private domestic space with travel and trade beyond the town. The Richards properties provide specific places through which to investigate that connection, but each house retains its own ownership and construction history. A later photograph establishes surviving appearance, not the exact arrangement of rooms or household life during a captain’s residence. Deeds, probate inventories, voyage records and family correspondence could connect the architectural evidence with work, wealth and domestic labor. Those sources also make it possible to ask about the people who maintained a household while its better-known resident traveled. [WHSC-003] [WHSC-002] [WHSC-001]

Key dates

• Before 1868 — Religious meetings at Henry H. Richards’ home recorded in the 1940 history. WHSC-002
• 1892 — Harborview constructed at 65 Main Street. WHSC-003
• 1939 — Lumber company liquidated, according to the 1940 history. WHSC-001
• 2018 — Harborview recognized as a Historical Treasure of West Haven. WHSC-003

A closer look at the surviving record

A waterfront business behind the houses

The period history places the lumber company on Water Street. It is evidence for the family’s commercial setting, not an illustration of any particular Main Street house.

Read the image and source notes: WHSC-001

The household as a meeting place

A home could support civic and religious life as well as family life. This passage records that role for Henry H. Richards while leaving the address unstated.

Read the image and source notes: WHSC-002