The Foote House (or Foot House) on South Main Street in Cheshire was built in 1767 for Rev. John Foot (1742-1813), the second minister of the town’s First Congregational Church. John Foot’s son, Samuel Augustus Foot, was born in the house in 1780. Samuel A. Foote was thirteen when he entered Yale; after graduating as the youngest student in the class of 1797, hestudied law with Tapping Reeve in Litchfield. He went on to become a U.S. Representative,a U.S. Senator, and the 28thGovernor of Connecticut. Foote continued to live in the 1767 house. In the 1830s, he added a Greek Revival portico to the entryway.
    Gov. Foote’s son, Andrew Hull Foote (1806-1863), was one of the first naval officers to be promoted to the new rank of rear admiral in the U.S. Navy during the Civil War.