Bakerville Library (1873)

According to the website of the Bakerville Library in New Hartford, the building that houses the library was built in 1834. The building was previously used as the Bakerville School. The volume in Arcadia Publishing’s Images of America series on New Hartford (by Margaret L. Lavoe, 2002) explains that the Bakerville Academy opened in 1873 (replacing an earlier Bakerville schoolhouse on the site) and that research was underway to determine the origin of the building. According to another book published by Arcadia, Connecticut Schoolhouses Through Time (2017), by Melinda K. Elliott, the school was started in 1824 and for a time the upstairs was used by the school and the downstairs was used for meetings and social events. Eventually, both floors would be used as classroom space. Next door was the Bakerville Methodist Church. The church’s horse sheds were attached to the rear of the school building, but they were eventually removed because children would climb out of the second-floor schoolroom onto the shed’s roof. The church burned down in 1954 (a new church was erected in 1960). The school closed when the Bakerville Consolidated School was built in 1941-1942. The Bakerville Library, started in 1949, moved into the former school building in 1951.

Asa E. Perkins House (1835)

The history of the house at 584 Main Street in New Hartford is related in Sketches Of The People And Places Of New Hartford In The Past And Present (1883), by Henry R. Jones, where it is described as

a pretty two-story house, with a veranda on the south side and along the front of the ell part, the whole painted a pinkish tint. The house was built by Asa E. Perkins, a cabinet maker, who was well known in this town fifty years ago. He was a brother of Mrs Caleb C. Goodwin and Mrs Grove S. Marsh. Mr Perkins purchased the land of Richard B. Cowles in 1835, and probably built the house immediately after. He lived there a number of years, after which he removed to the hotel in this village, of which he was the proprietor a year or two, when he removed with his family to Michigan, where he died in 1882.

After Mr Perkins, the house was occupied by “Deacon” Wentworth for several years. L. Frank Fuller was its owner and occupant for some years; from his hands it became the property of Mr and Mrs Reed Anderson, an aged couple who resided there from the time of purchase in 1863 until their death. Mr Anderson died April 20, 1878, at the age of eighty-six, Mrs Anderson Oct. 14, 1880, aged eighty-three. Mr and Mrs Anderson came to this town from East Haddam. After the death of Mrs Anderson, the place was purchased by her sister, Mrs J. C. Smith, who immediately remodeled and enlarged it. The place was then used by the Cong’l society as a parsonage, and was occupied for several years by the pastor of that church, Rev Frederic H. Adams, the father of Dr. Walter B. Adams who married Anna L. Carter. Afterwards it was occupied by Wm. McAlpine, a tailor in town, and his family. In 1892 this place was purchased by Jacob Widmer, who was for many years a master machinist for the Greenwoods Company. Mr Widmer’s wife is the daughter of Mrs Anson J. Hawley of Town Hill. Mr and Mrs Widmer had three children, Frederick, who died in the South in 1894; Howard J. and Mary, twins, the latter the wife of Frank B. Munn, Esq., a lawyer practising in Winsted and New Hartford; Howard is a machinist, now working in Brooklyn, L. I. Mr Widmer carries on a jewelry and variety store in town.

Jones-Brooks House (1836)

As related in Sketches Of The People And Places Of New Hartford In The Past And Present (1883), by Henry R. Jones, the house at 598 Main Street in New Hartford was

erected about 1836, by Miss Lucy A. Jones for her parents, Mr and Mrs Sylvester Jones. The builder was Henry Lee of Pleasant Valley. The owner of this property afterwards became the wife of Edward A. Brooks, who in former years was a blacksmith in this village. Mr Brooks’ first wife was a daughter of Pitman Stow, who also was an old time blacksmith in the village. Mr Brooks, who, with his family, lived in this house for many years, died in 1875, leaving a daughter, Mary Jane, by his first wife, and a widow who also had one daughter, Julia, who married for her second husband Austin Lee, the son of the contractor who built the house. Mrs Brooks was an accomplished lady, for many years a teacher, having for a considerable period, with her sister Almira (Mrs J. C. Baker), successfully conducted a select school in Poughkeepsie, N. Y. Her brother, Herman Leroy Jones, is now living in this village. Her sister, Juliana (Mrs Thomas H. Gault), died in Strausburg, Pa., about thirty years ago. Mrs Brooks died Sept. 5, 1876, and her only child, Mrs Lee, in 1875. Her father died in 1854 and her mother a few years later. The property is now owned by Charles Dickinson of New Britain, a brother of Mrs Lee’s first husband.

Van Dusen-Chamberlain-Priest House (1825)

The history of the house at 540 Main Street in New Hartford is given in Sketches Of The People And Places Of New Hartford In The Past And Present (1883), by Henry R. Jones:

A few steps to the south, is the house owned by the late Seth K. Priest and occupied by Mrs. E. Y. Morehouse, her two sons and two daughters. It was built in 1825 by Anson Van Dusen [died 1853] who came to New Hartford in 1831 from Claverack N.Y. At first he drove stage on the route from Hartford to Albany, making this his stopping place, driving to and from Hartford every day. The lot on which the house stands was purchased of Capt Harry Cowles for $80, the builder doing the work being Henry Lee of Barkhamsted. Mr. Van Dusen continued as driver on the stage route but about a year, when he engaged in the sale of clocks for William Markham, Jr, and others, which business he continued more than twenty years, traveling through the southern states, but retaining his home in this village. In 1847 he sold the place to Hiram Chamberlain, who carried on the butchering business.

Seth K. Priest bought the house from Chamberlain in 1855 and

in 1874 remodeled and improved it. He was for many years prominent in the business and political interests of the town. Commencing work here with his father, a master builder, he carried that on but a few years; subsequently he became a merchant, and continued as such for upwards of thirty years, during which time he was a member of several firms — Elmore and Priest, Priest and Crow, S. K. Priest and Co., and sole proprietor. He represented the town in the legislature, and was for a number of years first selectman. He died Nov. 21, 1880. His widow still owns the property.

The house is now home to Gallery 44 and Haller Custom Framing.

St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Hartford (1845)

St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, at 30 Prospect Street in New Hartford, was originally built as a Baptist Church in Barkhamsted. As related in the History of Litchfield County, Connecticut (1881):

In 1845—46 a Baptist Church and ecclesiastical society was organized in Pleasant Valley [in Barkhamsted], and a neat house of worship was erected. Rev. George B. Atwell became settled pastor in December, 1846, and Hart Doolittle was elected deacon. The church at this time numbered twenty-six. In 1847 the church gained accessions, and for several years continued to grow and prosper, although its membership never exceeded seventy-five. In 1858, Rev. J. J. Bronson succeeded Elder Atwell as pastor. In 1859 the members who resided in New Hartford formed a separate organization, known as a “Branch of the Pleasant Valley Baptist Church.” The original church, although reduced in numbers and strength, still retained its vitality, and Rev. T. Wrinkle succeeded to the pastorate, and was ordained in June, 1861. He remained but a few months, and the church was left without a pastor until 1865-66, when the remaining members united with the New Hartford branch, the house of worship was removed to that place, and the Baptist Church of Pleasant Valley became merged in that of New Hartford.

The church was moved from Pleasant Valley to New Hartford by being floated down the Farmington River. Its new location was on Holcomb Hill, on the east of the river. The commercial center of town would develop on the west side of the river. It was thought at the time that the East River Road, which ran by the church, would be extended, but instead the current Route 44, on the west side of the river, became the major thoroughfare through town. The Baptist church was acquired by the Lutheran church circa 1907.

Wilcox Tavern (1815)

The house at 206 Main Street in New Hartford was erected in 1815 a tavern by the Wilcox family. This section of town would become a center of industrial activity between 1847 and 1863, when an iron foundry was in operation. The area was known as the Furnace District or Puddletown, named for the method of iron production called puddling, in which bar iron was produced from pig iron. The Puddletown iron foundry burned down in 1863 and was not rebuilt because it employed an expensive, labor intensive process that was being superseded by more modern methods of iron refining. The tavern is now a private home.

Immaculate Conception Church, New Hartford (1870)

The first Catholic Mass in New Hartford was celebrated in 1849 in a private home. Masses continued to be offered in various residences and rented halls, as well as the Brick Machine Shop, for the next two decades. During that time, the Catholic population of New Hartford grew as Irish and French–Canadians immigrants came to work in local cotton mills. Immaculate Conception Church, designed by noted architect Patrick C. Keely of New York, was dedicated on March 27, 1870. Immaculate Conception became a parish in 1881. Recently, Immaculate Conception Church, at 3 Church Street in New Hartford, was merged with Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, at 78 Litchfield Road in Harwinton, to form Our Lady of Hope Parish.