Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Plymouth

Warren-Pierpont House (1853)

The house at 8 North Street in Plymouth Center was built c. 1835 by the Reverend Isaac Warren, a Congregational minister and founder of the Hart Female Seminary, which was located in the Storrs House across the street. A later resident of the house was George Pierpont, who served a term as town clerk in 1874. became a county commissioner in 1877 and was also a federal tax assessor. As related in the History of the Town of Plymouth, Connecticut (1895), compiled by Francis Atwater, Pierpont was the great-great-grandson of Rev. James Pierpont, the second pastor of the First Church in New Haven. He was also related to Rev. Thomas Hooker, first pastor of the First Church in Hartford, Rev. Timothy Collins, first pastor of the Litchfield church, and Caleb Humaston, one of the principal founders of the Northbury Society, now Plymouth.

The best blood of New England thus flowed in Mr. Pierpont’s veins, constituting him a member of that nobility, not of rank, wealth or title, but of intellect, of learning, of piety, of culture, and of character, which has been the foundation of New England’s greatness. The traces of this descent were manifest in Mr. Pierpont. Though denied the literary training which had characterized his earlier ancestry, he was a man of scholarly tastes, especially in the line of historical research, and kept himself well abreast of the general intelligence of the times. He was a man of strict integrity and of lofty honor, and scorned meanness and baseness in all its branches. He held at different times various offices of public trust, such as magistrate, selectman, and clerk of the town, judge of probate, and was a member of the State legislature. In 1861 he was appointed United States assistant assessor and continued to hold that office for eleven years or until it was abolished. In 1877 he was elected by the legislature county commissioner of Litchfield Countv. and re-elected to the same office in 1880. In April, 1840. Mr. Pierpont married Miss Caroline E. Beach, daughter of the late Isaac C. Beach, of Northfield, Conn., who was a devoted wife and helpmate for nearly thirtv-four years. She died January 18, 1874. His second wife was the daughter of the late J. Sherman Titus, of Washington, Conn. George Sherman Pierpont, his son, was born in Plymouth, in 1876, and is now being educated in Dr. Carleton’s family school in Bradford, Mass.

First Baptist Church of Plymouth (1915)

St. Peter’s Episcopal parish in Plymouth was established in 1740. The parish’s first church edifice was built on the northeast corner of Plymouth Green in 1796. The church burned down in 1915, but was quickly rebuilt with a new design constructed of fieldstone. The stones were gathered by parishioners from their own fields and walls. In 1996, St. Peter’s merged with Trinity Parish in Thomaston to form St. Peter’s-Trinity Church. The former St. Peter’s Church in Plymouth then became the First Baptist Church of Plymouth. This congregation, which began its ministry in Waterbury in 1803, held its first worship service in Plymouth on the Sunday following Easter in 1997.

Terryville Public Library (1922)

In 1839, thirty citizens of the Town of Plymouth (which includes Terryville), organized the Terryville Lyceum Library, a private subscription library. Interest dwindled after the Civil War, but near the turn of the century a new group of townspeople established the Terryville Free Public Library, which received the donation of all of the Lyceum Library’s books and 52 books from Francis Atwater, author of the History of the Town of Plymouth (1895). Initially the library was housed in the Town Hall courtroom and then for a time in a room in the old Main Street School before a demand for classroom space forced a relocation back to the Town Hall. The library finally got its own building, at 238 Main Street in Terryville, in 1922. An addition to the library was constructed in 1975.

Eli Terry House (1793)

Eli Terry (1772-1852), the prominent inventor and clockmaker whose entrepreneurial family gave their name to Terryville in Plymouth, set up his first factory in what would become Plymouth on the Niagara Brook in 1793. The first house he built in Plymouth (c. 1793) is a colonial cape, located at 731 Main Street.

St. Paul Lutheran Church, Terryville (1902)

St. Paul Lutheran Church in Terryville in the Town of Plymouth was formally organized on January 13, 1892. The church, located at 134 Main Street, was built in nine months in 1902. A parsonage was erected in 1907 and the dedication of the newly renovated sanctuary was held on June 9, 1912.

Mrs. A. H. Talmadge House (1782)

Happy Thanksgiving! Today I’m featuring a house in Plymouth….. Connecticut! Built c. 1782, the Mrs. A. H. Talmadge House is located at 670 Main Street.

Rev. Andrew Storrs House (1766)

Rev. Andrew Storrs was the second minister of the Plymouth Congregational Church. He built a house on the Green (4 Park Street), c. 1764-1766, where he lived during his pastorate of twenty years (he died in 1785). In front of the house, which once had a center chimney, is a sycamore tree that was planted by Rev. Storrs. The property also includes a large nineteenth-century barn. In 1853, Rev. Isaac Warren founded the Hart Female Seminary, which was located in the Storrs House and remained in operation until 1857. A wing, which Rev. Warren had added for the school, was later detached from the house to become a private residence (2 Park Street), serving as the Congregational parsonage after 1865. (more…)