The Church of Eternal Light (1889)

The Church of Eternal Light is a Pagan Spiritualist church, located at 1199 Hill Street in Bristol. The early history of the building, erected in 1889 is related in Bristol, Connecticut (“in the Olden Time New Cambridge”) which Includes Forestville (1907):

A small Sunday-school was organized in 1884 in the North Chippins Hill district near the Burlington line, by Miss Hattie O. Utter, school teacher in that district. Miss Utter organized the school because the children of her day school were non-attendants of any Sunday-school. She conducted the Sunday-school successfully for a year when her engagement closed and she left the school to return to her home and be married. She was greatly beloved by the people of the district, and only lived about a year after her removal. At her earnest request Mr. William E. Sessions and Mr. B. S. Rideout, who was General Secretary of the Y. M. C. A. in Bristol, continued the school, beginning in June, 1885. The first Sunday only three little girls, sisters, Mary, Sarah and Lizzie Goodsell, were present. Mr. Rideout was only able to continue for a few months. Mr. Sessions conducted the school for four years in the schoolhouse, and has conducted it in the chapel ever since. There was a large and increasing attendance which outgrew the accommodations of the schoolhouse, and in 1889 the Mount Hope Chapel was built by voluntary contributions of the people and friends.

The chapel was dedicated by the Rev. A. C. Eggleston, who had been the pastor of the Prospect Methodist Episcopal Church in Bristol, but was at that time pastor of the First Methodist Episcopal Church in Waterbury.

The school was named Mount Hope by Mr. Rideout, who has been for many years a Congregationalist minister at Norway, Maine.

The building continued for many years as a non-denominational Sunday School and chapel. In 1962, it became the First Michel Spiritualist Church. Twenty years later, it was renamed The Church of Eternal Light, which officially became a Pagan Spiritualist church on February 18th, 2001. A new steeple and bell tower were erected in 2000.

Copper Ledges (1924)

Copper Ledges is a Colonial Revival mansion in Bristol built in 1924 for Fuller F. Barnes (1887-1955). Barnes expanded the business started in 1857 by his grandfather, Wallace Barnes, who manufactured springs for clocks. Barnes and his brother, Henry, developed the company into the Associated Spring Corporation, which was organized in 1923 with Fuller Barnes as president. Associated Spring, part of the Barnes Group, would become the largest manufacturer of springs in the world.

The mansion stands on a prominent knoll at 60 Founders Drive, just southeast of the intersection of Stearns and Bradley Streets. Designed by local architect Henry Hayden, it was named Copper Ledges because the area is rich in copper. Extending to the south of the house are long formal gardens that end at a swimming pool and a dramatic loggia, erected in 1926. When it was constructed, the mansion was part of a 14-acre estate, which Barnes acquired in 1920. The Barnes family compound included the home of Fuller’s brother Henry Barnes, known as Chimney Crest, and various outbuildings. The estate has since been subdivided. Before he died, Fuller Barnes donated the house to Bristol Hospital, with the plan that it be made a convalescent home. The idea proved unworkable and the two Barnes houses instead became home to Laurel Crest Academy (later Laurel Crest Preparatory School), a private boys’ school, from 1960 to 1970. A girl’s school was added in 1970 and the name was changed to Devonshire-Laurel Crest, but the school closed in 1971. Copper Ledges is now a private residence. (more…)

Harry L. Beach House (1885)

Greatly altered since its construction c. 1885, the house at 106 Prospect Place in Bristol is the work of builder-architect Joel T. Case. Now a multi-family home, it is listed in the nomination for the Federal Hill Historic District as the Harry L. Beach House. This is likely Henry L. Beach (1839-1922), who worked for his brother-in-law Edward Ingraham as superintendent at the E. Ingraham Clock Company.

Beleden Gardener’s Cottage (1910)

Partially hidden behind trees at 76 Bellevue in Bristol is a house erected in 1910 as the gardener’s cottage for William Sessions’ Beleden estate. It was built by Lemuel Stewart. The cottage was later the home of Charles Treadway, treasurer of New Deparure Manufacturing Company. He would later become president of the Bristol National Bank and was chairman of the committee that erected Bristol Hospital in response to the influenza epidemic of 1918.

Page-Malone House (1905)

The house at 91 Bellevue Avenue in Bristol was erected c. 1905 for DeWitt Page (1869-1940), an Industrialist, philanthropist, and owner of Thoroughbred racehorses. Originally from Meriden, DeWitt Page worked his way up from the shipping department to become president of the New Departure Manufacturing Company. He married Mae Belle Rockwell, sister of Albert Rockwell, founder of New Departure. In 1933, DeWitt and Mae Page gifted Page Park to the City of Bristol. They only lived in the house at 91 Bellevue until about 1917, when their new mansion was completed at 181 Grove Street (the mansion was demolished in 1971). The Bellevue Avenue house was then owned by William J. Malone (1879-1961), a judge of the city court who also presided as Speaker of the state House of Representatives.

Leverett G. Merrick House (1890)

The house at 200 Summer Street in Bristol was built c. 1890. It was originally the home of Leverett G. Merrick, a grocer who owned two stores. His wife lived in the house after Merrick’s death in 1916. Marvin Edgerton, Treasurer and superintendent of Penfield Saw Works in Bristol, was a later resident. By the mid-1980s the building had been converted to use as an office, with a new block added to the front, replacing the original front porch.

Bristol Armory (1928)

By 1927, community leaders in Bristol had long lobbied the state to build an armory for the city’s National Guard units, which had been utilizing inadequate rented facilities. That year, armory supporters finally acquired funding and hired Payne & Keefe of New London to design an armory at 61 Center Street. Opened in 1928, the Bristol Armory is a Military Gothic style building that faces the intersection of Center and Valley Streets. An unusual feature is that the Armory’s drill shed floor is on the second level of the building. In 1978 a military museum opened in the building. The museum moved to the Bristol Historical Society building in 2008. More recently the state has sought to sell the building.