Charles Brewer House (1839)

28 Pearl Street, Middletown

The house at 28 Pearl Street in Middletown was built by Charles Brewer (1778-1860) sometime between 1839 and 1851. It was one of three houses he built on Pearl Street during the second quarter of the nineteenth century and may have been intended to be a rental property. The house was owned in the later nineteenth century by Rev. Eleazor Foster, who was pastor of Middletown’s First Universalist Church from 1866 to 1868, and then by the printer J. Peters Pelton, who built a house on Court Street in the 1880s.

Charles Brewer is described in the Commemorative Biographical Record of Middlesex County, Connecticut (1903):

Capt. Charles Brewer second son of George was born in Springfield Mass. March 24, 1778, and removed to Middletown on attaining his majority. He was a silversmith, and for fifty nine years was a manufacturing and merchant jeweler, being a successful and a leading merchant of his time. He was a captain in the old militia for many years, and was known as “Capt.” Charles Brewer. With his son-in-law, Edwin Stearns, he gave the real estate for and was instrumental in the building the Universalist Church at Middletown. Fraternally he was a member of St. John’s Lodge, F. & A. M., and some of his silver work was used for many years in that lodge. Capt. Brewer built the family home on the corner of Pearl and Court streets as well as the two houses south of it on the east side of Pearl street. He was married February 18, 1801, to Hannah daughter of Barakiah Fairbanks. She was born September 28, 1777, and died May 24, 1855. Capt. Brewer died May 10, 1860. They were the parents of a numerous family of children[.]

Bethel Public Library (1842)

Seth Seelye House, now Bethel Public Library

In 1831, P. T Barnum, started publishing a newspaper called The Herald of Freedom which stirred up a number of controversies. His uncle Alanson Taylor even sued him for libel, although the suit never went to trial. Another libel suit in 1832 did land Barnum in jail for two months. The prosecution was brought on behalf of Seth Seelye (1795-1869), a merchant and church deacon in Barnum’s hometown of Bethel whom Barnum accused of usury. In 1842 Seeyle built a grand Greek Revival-style house at 189 Greenwood Avenue in Bethel. In 1914 the house was donated to become the new home of the Bethel Public Library, which had been organized in 1909.

Miscellaneous Buildings, Part Three

Babcock House in East Hartford, built in 1891
House on Main Street in Enfield
Grand Victorian house in Enfield
On West Street in Danbury
Houses in Clinton
Old house in Clinton
Lyman M. Williams House in Mystic, built in 1850
New London
Senior Center in Cheshire, CT
Rear of Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum houses in Wethersfield
On Depot Hill Road in East Hampton
On Depot Hill Road in East Hampton

New Video on Hartford’s Old East Side: State Street before Constitution Plaza

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This video is about the north block of State Street, between Market Street and Columbus Boulevard (the former Front Street), that today is the south edge of Constitution Plaza in Hartford, Connecticut. In the early 1800s this was part of the center of the city’s business and social life, where some of its most famous insurance companies were started and had their first offices. Other businesses flourished here for generations. Some were started by Jewish immigrants, who became notable Hartford merchants selling such goods as tobacco, hardware and clothing. Others businesses were started by Chinese immigrants, among whom were prominent importers and the proprietors of Hartford’s first Chinese restaurant. There were also tragedies, including sometimes deadly fires. Old buildings survived here into the late 1950s, when everything was demolished to make way for the redevelopment project of Constitution Plaza.

Virtual Event Tomorrow

Museum guide Daniel Sterner has researched and photographed the remnants of the numerous stately buildings that once graced Connecticut’s capital city, documenting his research on both his website (https://historicbuildingsct.com/) and YouTube Channel (https://bit.ly/3shJRdO).In his talk, Sterner will explain how his museum background led to his interest in historic preservation and delve into his research about Old Hartford’s lost buildings and the important historic landmarks that remain. Sterner is the author of two books, Vanished Downtown Hartford and A Guide to Historic Hartford, Connecticut. Register for this FREE talk on Zoom: https://bit.ly/3pcv0PI