Wolcott Institute (1857)
Saturday, May 25th, 2013 Posted in Houses, Litchfield, Schools, Vernacular | No Comments »
The house at 180 South Street in Litchfield was originally (from 1857-1859) home to a boarding school for boys called the Wolcott Institute. The school was founded by Rev. Charles H. Seymour, who departed the following year. A listing for the school in 1859 indicated that its most recent rector, Rev. D. G. Wright, had resigned and the vacancy had not been filled. The school ceased operations that year.
Enfield Shaker Village Meeting House (1827)
Tuesday, May 21st, 2013 Posted in Churches, Enfield, Organizations, Vernacular | No Comments »
Earlier this month I featured buildings at the Hancock Shaker Village on my site Historic Buildings of Massachusetts. Connecticut also had a Shaker village. It was located in Enfield, but not nearly as many of its buildings have survived and they have been restored as they have at Hancock. On this site, I’ve already featured the South Family Residence and the adjacent laundry, ice house and dairy. The Enfield Shaker community grew to include five “families.” Besides the South Family, there were the North, East and West Families and, centrally located, was the Church Family. The first to be organized, the Church Family had overall control over the entire Enfield Shaker settlement. The last Enfield Shakers left the area in 1917. The State of Connecticut purchased the former Shaker property in 1931 for what is now the Enfield Correctional Institution. One of only two buildings to survive from the Church Family is the former Meeting House/Trustee House. Built in 1827, the building had an open meeting hall for the entire community and (perhaps later?) housed the Trustees, who handled the community‘s dealings with the outside world. Shakers were associated with reform movements, such as abolitionism: Sojourner Truth once spoke at the Meeting House.
Enfield Shaker Village: South Family Residence (1852)
Saturday, March 30th, 2013 Posted in Enfield, Organizations, Outbuildings, Vernacular | No Comments »
The Shaker community in Enfield (not to be confused with the Shakers of Enfield, New Hampshire) was established in 1792 and survived until 1917. 100 buildings were once a part of the Enfield Shaker Village, of which only 15 survive today. Living communally, the Shakers in Enfield grew to include five family complexes. The residence building of the South Family, on Cybulski Road, survives today. It is a three and a half story brick building with a wooden belfry. It has been converted into a private residence. There are other adjacent surviving Shaker buildings. Read the rest of this entry »
Huntley-Brown House (1795)
Friday, March 15th, 2013 Posted in Houses, Old Lyme, Vernacular | No Comments »
Gurdon Clark built the Huntley-Brown House on the Boston Post Road in Laysville in Old Lyme around 1795. Matthew Peck purchased the house in 1808 and sold it to William B. Tooker in 1827. Marvin Huntley, Jr. (1800–1886) bought the house a year later and it remained in the Huntley family for over a century. In 1959, architect Jane Carter and her daughter-in-law Sue McCloud Carter purchased the house and moved it to a lot near the Florence Griswold House. Mrs. John Crosby Brown, President of the Lyme Society, acquired the house in 1974 to serve as a home for the Society’s Director. It was later converted to administrative offices and is still on the grounds of the Florence Griswold Museum.
Smedley and Sturges Storehouse (1772)
Thursday, February 14th, 2013 Posted in Bridgeport, Commercial Buildings, Organizations, Outbuildings, Vernacular | No Comments »
In the post-Revolutionary War era, the Upper Wharves at Brewster Street were the commercial center of the trading port of Black Rock in Bridgeport. The oldest surviving storehouse from that period is at 51 Brewster Street. Built in 1772, it has been greatly altered since then. It was built by the partners Samuel Smedley and Samuel Sturges. Both men were patriots during the Revolutionary War, Smedley being a prominent privateer. Later used as a residence, the old storehouse was purchased by the Fayerweather Yacht Club in 1937 to become their clubhouse.
Canton Town Hall (1908)
Tuesday, February 12th, 2013 Posted in Canton, Gothic, Greek Revival, Public Buildings, Vernacular | No Comments »
A two-story building with Gothic Revival windows and a Doric columned entry porch (on the right in the image above) was built in 1908 on Market Street in Collinsville to serve as the Town Hall of Canton. The town hall later expanded into a much larger nineteenth-century building next door on Main Street (the large building in the image above). It was originally a commercial structure that had stores at street level and offices above.
Curtis Raymond House (1856)
Tuesday, February 5th, 2013 Posted in Bridgeport, Houses, Vernacular | No Comments »
In the mid-nineteenth century, Captain William Hall arrived in the Bridgeport village of Black Rock. He purchased the four shipyards in Black Rock and began large-scale shipbuilding operations, which lasted until his death in 1860. At one time, he employed 90 men, one of whom was Curtis Raymond, whose house still stands at 245 Ellsworth Street in Black Rock. Built in 1856, the formerly Italianate-style house has undergone much remodeling over the years and has lost its front veranda.
