Lewtan Building (1860)

Today is the Fifth Anniversary of Historic Buildings of Connecticut!

At 28 High Street in Hartford is the Gothic and Romanesque Revival Batterson Block, now called the Lewtan Building. It was closely linked to a much larger Batterson Building, now lost, that stood next door and was later the Garde Hotel. It was built around 1860 by James G. Batterson, who ran a quarrying business called the New England Granite Company. Batterson, who is buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery in Hartford, founded Travelers Insurance Company in 1863.

Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Hartford (1917)

Sacred Heart Catholic Church, at Ely and Winthrop Streets in Hartford, was erected by a congregation of German immigrants who first organized in 1872. The church began with a basement chapel, designed by Michael O’Danahue and completed in 1893. The Gothic structure with yellow brick facade was completed by architect George A. Zunner, Sr. and was dedicated in 1917. Today, the church has a primarily Puerto Rican congregation.

Lauren T. Campbell House (1877)

Southington‘s only known nineteenth-century architect is Lauren T. Campbell, who was listed in the local directory as a joiner in 1882 and as an architect after 1889. Campbell designed his own house, a towered Italianate villa at 45 Berlin Avenue built in 1877. His only other known building, the H.B. Gleason House, is located nearby at 63-65 Berlin Avenue. It has similarities to the Campbell house but lacks the Italianate tower. (more…)

Old Stone Schoolhouse, Wolcott (1825)

The Old Stone Schoolhouse (pdf) is located at 155 Nichols Road in Wolcott. An extension was added to the building in 1898, which was attached to a frame woodshed (built in 1882) to form a new wing. At the time the addition was made, the date 1825 was inscribed in the school’s front gable, although the oldest part of the building may date back to 1821. In either case, the building is recognized as the oldest stone schoolhouse in Connecticut. Built as the town’s Southwest District school, it was in continuous use until 1930, when a new school was built. It was then purchased by Emily Morris of New Haven, whose grandfather, Lucius Tuttle, had taught at the school in 1829. In 1937, she gave it to the Mattatuck Historical Society of Waterbury and in 1963 it was purchased by the Wolcott Historical Society and is used as a museum of the town’s history.

John Wheeler House (1720)

The Black Rock section of Bridgeport was first occupied by the Wheeler family in 1644 and developed as a trading settlement. Its oldest surviving house is the John Wheeler House at 268 Brewster Street. Although traditionally dated to 1720, the steep pitch of its roof and various interior features suggest an even earlier date in the seventeenth century (c. 1680). John Wheeler was a wealthy merchant who represented Fairfield in the colonial legislature. The house was greatly altered over time: a Gothic Revival center gable with a quatrefoil window was added in the 1850s, the original central chimney was removed above the first floor and the front facade was greatly altered in the 1940s. These later alterations were removed in the 1980s when the house was restored to an early colonial appearance.