Masonic Hall, Old Saybrook (1830)

The building at 52 Old Post Road in Old Saybrook was built in the 1830s and began as a one-story carpenters workshop used by the builders of the First Church of Christ on Main Street. When the church was completed, the building was moved from the town green to a site on Old Boston Post Road and a second story was added. For a time, Frederick Kirtland had a shoe store in the building. In its second location, the building stood east of where Thomas C. Acton would build a library in 1873. Acton, who had bought the house across the street, also acquired the former church workshop in 1870 and at some point thereafter it was moved to its current location west of the library. In 1903, Acton rented the building to the Masons of Siloam Lodge No. 32. In December, 1907 he sold the building and it was formally purchased by the Masons in February, 1908. The facade of the Masonic Hall has been altered over the years. In the early twentieth century, there was little decoration, but at some point afterwards it was elaborately ornamented with pilasters, dentil moldings and a fan light in the gable. Most of this ornamentation has since been removed (the street number was also changed from 50 to 52). In 2005, Siloam Lodge No. 32 merged with Trinity-Mt. Olive Lodge No. 43 and Pythagoras Lodge No. 45 to form Estuary Lodge No. 43.

Westbrook-Gengras Cottage (1928)

The substantial waterfront summer cottage at 20 Nibang Avenue in the Borough of Fenwick in Old Saybrook was built on a lot acquired in 1928 by Frances Dunham Westbrook and her husband, Stillman Westbrook, Sr. (1888-1943), a senior vice-president at the Aetna Life Insurance Company who oversaw the construction of the Aetna Building on Farmington Avenue in Hartford. He was also the first chairman of the Hartford Housing Authority and Westbrook Village, a housing project that is currently being redeveloped, was named in his honor. In 1948, the cottage was acquired and remodeled by E. Clayton Gengras (1908-1983), who also acquired the Riversea Inn and other properties in the borough. Gengras founded Gengras Motor Cars, which he developed into one of the largest car dealerships in the nation. In recent years, the house has had new owners. You can read more about the cottage in Marion Hepburn Grant’s The Fenwick Story (Connecticut Historical Society, 1974), pages 58-61.

Capt. Willoughby Lynde House (1799)

The house at 174 North Cove Road in Old Saybrook was built in 1799 by Willoughby Lynde, a wealthy sea captain. Willoughby and his father, Samuel Lynde, engaged in farming and trade with the West Indies. Both were also slave owners. Nine enslaved people worked on the Lynde farm and wharf and also increased the family’s wealth by producing cloth. The Lynde House has an ell, which was built c. 1645 as a separate building. In the eighteenth century, the ell was owned by another mariner, Captain Samuel Doty, a West Indies trader and shipbuilder, who had a shipyard, warehouse and wharf on the Connecticut River. Capt. Doty’s own house was torn down in 1813, when the Samuel Hart, Jr. House was built. He used the ell as a bakery for ship’s bread. The ell was attached to the Lynde House about the time of the latter’s construction. The ell is to the right of the house’s front facade, while on the left is a new addition, constructed since 2008.

Hall-Wilson Cottage (1910)

The summer cottage at 11 Pettipaug Avenue in the Borough of Fenwick in Old Saybrook was built in 1910 for the Hall and Wilson families. It was erected on what had previously been the site of the 1885 cottage of Henry Morgan. That cottage was long rented by John Henry Hall and his family. Hall was one of the family that owned the Portland brownstone quarries and was a president of Colt Firearms. The Halls purchased the Morgan Cottage in 1901 and sold it to Ernest Wilson, who moved it to its current address at 4 Agawam Avenue. The Halls then built the current cottage, which was later owned by their grandson, John C. Wilson, Jr. You can read more about the cottage in Marion Hepburn Grant’s The Fenwick Story (Connecticut Historical Society, 1974), pages 114-115.