In 1845, members of the First Congregational Church of Plainfield who resided in the town’s Central Village formed a separate North Plainfield Ecclesiastical Society. They built the Central Village Congregational Church in 1846 on Main Street. In 1927, renovations were made to make room for an organ. The church‘s original steeple was lost in the 1938 hurricane and quickly replaced by the current one.
David L. Aldrich and Edwin Milner operated woolen mills in the Plainfield village of Mossup. When Aldrich died in 1889, he left $3,000 towards the construction of a public library, with the condition that others raise a matching amount. His partner Milner pledged $2,000 and the rest was raised by the town residents. In 1893, the Aldrich Free Public Library Association was organized and the building was completed in 1895, with final construction costs paid by Milner so that the money raised by the town could be spent on books. The Aldrich Free Public Library opened on Washington’s Birthday, February 22, 1896. The house-like Queen Anne-style building (pdf) was designed by Charles F. Wilcox of Providence, Rhode Island and was built by Willis Rouse, a local carpenter and a contractor and dealer in sash and architectural millwork in Central Village.
On Old Black Hill Road in Plainfield is the David Kinne House, built in 1780 and enlarged in 1815. It is considered to be an example of the “Caterbury Style,” a regional variety of the Federal style, other examples of which include the Capt. John Clark House and the Prudence Crandall House, both in Canterbury. Another house in Plainfield, which is also clearly in the same style to the above mentioned houses was covered in the Historic American Buildings Survey. It’s listed as “Cleveland House, Bradford Hill, Plainfield, Windham, CT,” but I don’t know its exact location or if it is still standing.
At 20 Academy Hill Road in Plainfield is a colonial house, built in 1725, which now for sale for use as a bed & breakfast. The house served as both residence and probate court of Judge Joseph Eaton. A market listing for the house claims that it was also the Eaton Tavern (later known as the the Plainfield Hotel and the Lafayette Inn), where George Washington (1776 and 1781) and Lafayette (1824) once stayed. Other sources clearly state that Eaton’s Tavern (1768), which is no longer standing, was actually located at the intersection of Gallup Street and Norwich Road.
