The house at 2195 North Avenue in Bridgeport was built in 1919. Its first resident was Charles Levin, a clothier.
Charles Levin House (1919)
Gerhard F. Drouve House (1914)
The house at 2137 North Avenue in Bridgeport was built in 1914 by Gerhard F. Drouve. As described in the History of Bridgeport and Vicinity, Volume 1 (1917):
The G. Drouve Company, 40 Tulip Street, are manufacturers of the Anti-Pluvius puttyless skylights. The firm was incorporated in May, 1896. The officers of this concern are: G. F. Drouve, president and treasurer; William V. Dee, secretary.
Drouve also manufactured various devices, including a “Straight-Push” sash operator and the Lovell Window and Shutter Operating Device.
Angus H. MacKenzie House (1911)
The house at 820 Clinton Avenue in Bridgeport was built in 1911 for Angus H. MacKenzie. The house has a basic American Foursquare form with Mission Revival-style roof and stucco siding. The house is now owned by the Sisters of The Company of The Savior. Angus H. MacKenzie (the original owner) and his brother are described as follows in the History of Bridgeport and Vicinity, Vol. II (1917):
Angus H. and Roderick J. MacKenzie are the owners of the Bridgeport Public Market, in which connection they have built up a large and substantial business which is continually growing. They established this market on the 9th of December, 1897, on Bank street, where they are still located. The start, however, was small compared with their present business. In the early days they employed twenty-five people, and something of the growth of their trade is indicated in the fact that they now employ from one hundred and sixty to two hundred people. They conduct entirely a retail and jobbing business and their deliveries are made with both horses and motors.
About twelve years ago they established a branch of the Bridgeport Public Market on East Main street, where they employ about twenty people. Their original building has been rebuilt and has a frontage of one hundred and thirty feet on State street and of one hundred and twelve feet on Bank Street. They occupy the entire building, which they have splendidly equipped with refrigerators, carriers and everything necessary to facilitate the business. They have made an alley through the building in order to keep the teams off the street while loading for delivery. This is a covered alley extending from street to street and was put through at a great deal of expense; but it indicates the public spirit of the men who were behind the project.
The brothers, Angus H. and Roderick J. MacKenzie, were formerly residents of Massachussetts and of New York. Believing that there was opportunity for a successful business, however, in Bridgeport, they removed to this city and great credit is due them for the fine market which they have developed. It is always clean and sanitary and their business methods of dealing with customers will bear the closest investigation and scrutiny. They have ever recognized the fact that satisfied patrons are the best advertisement and they have put forth every legitimate effort to win the approval of their customers.
Naugatuck Railroad Station (1910)
The railroad came to Naugatuck in 1849 and by the turn-of-the-century the lines through town were owned by the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad. When the time came to design a new and larger railway station, John H. Whittemore, Naugatuck’s great manufacturer and philanthropist, who had done so much to shape the architecture of the town center according to his vision of a “City Beautiful,” offered to help pay for its construction if he could select the building’s architect. Whittemore, who was also director of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad, commissioned Henry Bacon to design the station, which was constructed between 1908 and 1910. The style of the building has been described as Spanish Colonial Revival, but also as Italian Villa style. Although trains still stop at a newer station nearby, the old station closed in the mid-1960s. Used for a time as a newspaper plant by the Naugatuck Daily News, the building has more recently been restored and converted into a museum by the Naugatuck Historical Society.
Naugatuck Post Office (1916)
In contrast to the many other Classical Revival buildings nearby in Naugatuck Center, the Naugatuck Main Post Office was constructed with elements of the Spanish Colonial Revival style, most notably a Spanish tile roof. Built in 1916, the Post Office was designed under the supervision of James A. Wetmore, Acting Supervising Architect for the Federal Government. It was one of the first post offices to be built under the Public Buildings Act of 1913.
The Landers House (1910)
Landers, Frary & Clark, a New Britain company which manufactured cutlery, was founded in the 1850s by George M. Landers. The company (pdf) was known for such products as the Universal Food Chopper/Grinder. George M. Landers‘ son, Charles Smith Landers, married Grace Judd, the daughter of Loren F. Judd, of North & Judd, a company which manufactured saddlery hardware. Their son was also named George M. Landers. Grace Judd Landers later lived in a house which on Lexington Street in New Britain. It was built around 1910 for William H. Hart, president of Stanley Works, and sold to Mrs. Landers upon the death of Hart’s widow in 1929. It is located on the edge of Walnut Hill Park, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. The style of the house combines elements of the Spanish Mission style (the use of stucco and stone and the Spanish style roofing tiles) and the Craftsman style (the gables and overhanging eaves with decorative brackets).
In 1935, Grace Judd Landers bequeathed the house to the the Art Museum of the New Britain Institute, now the New Britain Museum of American Art. The building was remodeled as an art museum based on designs by William F. Brooks, of the firm Davis & Brooks, and opened in 1937. In 2007, a new museum building was opened, connected to the Landers House, which has again been renovated and now houses an art lab, library and art studio.
Holbrook Carriage House (1865)
Update: This Carriage House was demolished in January 2010 after the roof collapsed from heavy snow.
The Caleb M. Holbrook House once stood at the corner of Farmington Avenue and Gillett Street in Hartford. Built in 1865, the Second Empire style house was later torn down, but Holbrook’s carriage house remains on Gillett Street. Below is the intersection where the house once stood as it appears today (also note that the current apartment building is in the Mission Revival style):
For more on the loss of this building: (more…)