Former Milford High School (1909)

Known locally as the Yellow Building (and later named the Diane S. Toulson Building), the Beaux-Arts structure at 38 W River Street in Milford was constructed in 1908-1909 as a high school. It was later used for all grades but in the 1980s it was threatened with demolition. Local citizens fought to save it and it was reused as senior housing. Today it continues as part of Elderly Housing Management under the name River Park Apartments.

Simon Lake House (1853)

Since 1935, the house at 135 North Broad Street in Milford has been home to Smith Funeral Home, founded in 1886 by George J. Smith. The wing on the west side is the earliest section of the house. The building was much expanded in 1853-1855 by John Fowler as an Italianate villa. Simon Lake bought the house in 1900 and further expanded it, building a laboratory behind it. Simon Lake was a mechanical engineer and naval architect who is credited with inventing the modern submarine.

Bryan-Downs House (1785)

The first residents of the Bryan-Downs House, originally located on the Post Road between Milford and New Haven, were Jehiel Bryan, Jr. wed Mary Treat, who were married in April, 1784. It was then the home of their daughter, Mary Esther, and her husband, Ebenezer Downs. Their son, Ebenezer Jr., inherited in 1837 and made a number of major changes to the house, replacing the original stone chimney with a smaller one and remodeling the interior. After Ebenezer’s death in 1873, the family rented out the house, which was later dismantled and stored for several years. In 1977, it was erected on the Milford Historical Society property, where today it forms part of the Wharf Lane complex of historic houses.

Clark-Stockade House (1780)

About 1659, Deacon George Clark began construction of the first house in Milford to be built outside the early settlement’s protective stockade. The building, known as the Stockade House, was expanded over time into a saltbox structure. It is also called the “Nathan Clark Stockade House,” named for a grandson of George Clark. This original house was dismantled in 1780 by Michael Peck, a builder, and David Camp, his assistant. They constructed a new house, using building materials salvaged from the one they took down. In the twentieth century, the house served as a rooming house, tea room and Milford’s first public hospital. In 1974, the Clark-Stockade House was moved from Bridgeport Avenue to become part of Wharf Lane, the Milford Historical Society’s complex of colonial houses.