South Britain Academy (1835)

The house at 698 South Britain Road in South Britain, Southbury was built c. 1835-1840 as a school called the South Britain Academy. The Academy, started around 1820, had a library and an Institute for Elocution and Debating. The school had closed by the 1860s and the building was converted into a residence. In 1922 it was acquired by Henry McCarthy, a merchant, and his wife, Helen McCarthy, who worked as secretary of Southbury’s board of Selectmen from 1943-1965 and then worked for the town’s social services office.