Today is the Fourteenth Anniversary of Historic Buildings of Connecticut, which started with its first post (the Joseph Webb House in Wethersfield) back in 2007! Thank you all who follow my posts here, which have featured over 4,346 buildings in 136 towns! I hope to someday get to buildings in the other 33 towns!
The large commercial building at 1-17 West Main Street in Mystic, which has contained numerous businesses over the years, was erected in 1907 by the brothers Mark and Osgood Gilbert. It housed the offices of the Gilbert Transportation Company, the brothers’ shipyard where they built and repaired schooners. (There is a photo that shows the building they previously occupied on the site before they built the current structure). The company went bankrupt in 1909. There was a fire in 1915 that gutted the building. It was started because of an over-heated flue in Green’s Bakery and spread to a theater that showed silent films. The building remained vacant until 1924, when the structure was rebuilt and renamed the Main Block. The building continues to be used for retail stores and apartments. There is a video about the building:
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The building at 12 Chestnut Street in Bethel was once a commercial structure, with storefronts on the first floor and a two-level residence above. Walker Ferry (1822-1906), a shoemaker, had started business on the site in 1845. In about 1850, he tore down the earlier building and replaced it with the current one, which he occupied for many decades. At first he manufactured shoes on the first floor, employing a number of men, but later ceased shoemaking and switched to operating a retail shoe store, retiring shortly before his death in 1906. A c. 1890 image shows the shoe store on the right and McDowell’s Meat Market on the left.
Jacob Pledger (1762-1822) emigrated from England in 1795 with the family of his wife, Sarah Watkinson, and settled in Middletown, where he worked as an agent for the Middletown Brewery. In 1800 he acquired land from his father-in-law Samuel Watkinson, Sr. (1745-1816) and in 1803 erected at 717 Newfield Street what is now one of five surviving brick Federal-style houses in Middletown. Pledger farmed the surrounding land, which was evenly divided along both sides of Newfield Street. [His daughter Eliza would be a student at Sara Pierce‘s Litchfield Female Academy in 1814] Samuel Miller (1782-1856) purchased the house and farm in 1813. It was later owned by his son, Augustus Henry Miller (1816-1895), and then by Augusts’ daughter, Bernice M. Dunklee (1872-1965), whose husband, Henry F. Dunklee (1905-1961), managed the farm. Their son, Earle M. Dunklee (1898-1976) acquired the property in 1953 and sold it to the city in 1969. The house was purchased by Dr. Peter Nelson in 1975 in a sale that included architectural covenants to protect the integrity of the building‘s historic structure. Dr. Nelson adapted the building into professional offices (it is home to Dr. Nelson’s Advanced Cosmetic Dentistry).
The building at 5 Ives Street in Danbury was built in 1883-1884 and served as the city’s Fire Department Headquarters until 1969. Designed by architect Joel Foster, it had vehicle storage on the first floor and parlors (later converted into sleeping quarters) for volunteer fire companies on the second floor. Today the building is home to Two Steps Downtown Grill. Next door (pictured on the right in the image above) is the building at 1 Ives Street. Designed by William Webb Sunderland, it was built in 1893 as a meat warehouse and offices.
The building at 55 Lyme Street in Old Lyme originally stood on Maple Lane, near the Lieutenant River, where it was built for the Old Lyme Gun Club. It was erected sometime before 1910 (according to different sources in 1885 or 1906) when it was purchased by the Old Lyme Grange #162, which had been founded in 1905. Women had organized the Grange Aid Society to raise funds to buy the building, but because it was located on leased property they continued to save money while seeking land to purchase. In 1928, when the lot at 55 Lyme Street became available, the women of the Grange Aid Society bought it (against the advice of the men). The building was then moved by a team of oxen to its current location, where it was enlarged and refurbished. The new hall was dedicated in February 1929. For decades it hosted various events for the Grange and for the community. The Old Lyme Historical Society, formed in 2005, purchased the Grange building in 2014 as its headquarters, providing a space for the town’s archives, artifacts and historical exhibits.
The Priest Marsh House in Winchester Center is a saltbox house built in 1774. When Rev. Frederick Marsh (1780-1873) was first offered the pastorate in Winchester in 1808, he declined because the salary was not enough to purchase a home. Eventually the matter was settled, perhaps with the house being part of deal, and Marsh served as pastor for forty-two years.
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