Daniel - Historic Buildings of Connecticut

The Baker-Weir House (1750/1860)

The Baker-Weir House in Windham Center began as a colonial farmhouse, built in 1750. Two Italianate-style wings were added in 1860. The house was owned by the Baker family. In 1851, Anna Bartlett Dwight married Lt. Charles Taintor Baker and, after 1870, they resided in New York and spent their summers at the Baker House in Windham. The couple’s youngest daughter, Anna Dwight Baker, married the artist J. Alden Weir in 1883. The previous year, Weir had acquired a farm in Branchville, which became his primary residence. At the time of Anna Weir’s death in 1892, he had three young daughters to raise, so the next year, Weir married Anna’s sister, Ella Baker. Through his two marriages, Weir inherited the Baker farm and thereafter maintained three homes, one in New York, and his two country studios in Branchville, which is now the Weir Farm National Historic Site, and in Windham, which is still owned by the Weir family. J. Alden Weir died in 1919 and is buried in Windham Center Cemetery.

Savings Bank of Ansonia (1900)

The Savings Bank of Ansonia was chartered in 1862 and initially shared a building with the Ansonia National Bank. A new building was constructed at 117 Main Street in 1900. The Neoclassical structure, which displays the dates 1862 and 1900, has been restored by Beacon Preservation, Inc. and now houses offices and Obsidium Antiques.

The building witnessed a dramatic scene on the night of September 16, 1915. The bank’s Treasurer, former Ansonia mayor, Franklin Burton, had been arrested for embezzling $38,000 and the bank’s affairs had been taken over by the State Bank Commissioner. A crowd of 5,000 people, fearing for their deposits, gathered and threatened to break in the doors of the closed bank. Threats were made of lynching Burton, who was still inside the building. The entire police force was called out but were unable to quell the developing riot. Firemen were ordered to turn their hoses on the mob, but this was prevented because hundreds of people seized the hose and took it away from them. Officials feared for Burton’s safety and he was taken from the building through a back window. Police clubs and fists were used freely and after two hours the police regained control and the crowed melted away. The next day, disorder was avoided and depositors were admitted to the bank one-by-one, where they were paid in full by William A. Nelson, one of the bank’s directors. According to the Bank Commissioner’s Report for 1915, “Rumors of trouble at the bank started a run which would have been quite serious but for the energy of Mr. William A. Nelson,” to whom great credit was due for “acting so promptly and effectively thus putting the affairs of this institution in its present good condition.”

The Dr. Thomas Cornwall House (1810)

In 1807, Dr. Thomas Cornwall built a house at the northwest intersection of South Main Street and Cornwall Avenue in Cheshire. With his medical practice growing, Dr. Cornwall moved this first house to the rear of his lot and built a larger building, to serve as his home and office, on the site in 1810. The central block is the oldest section of the house, with the two wings being added in 1814. A specialist in cancer treatment, Dr. Cornwall constructed the wings to serve as a sanitarium for his patients. Dr. Cornwall’s son Edward, an attorney who served in various town offices and in the state legislature, lived in the house after 1846. It was Edward Cornwall who later added the Victorian-style porches to the building’s two side wings.

First Baptist Church of West Hartford (1938)

The First Baptist Church of West Hartford was established in 1858 and a meeting house was built in 1858-1859 on the north-west corner of Main Street and Farmington Avenue, just around the corner from the no-longer extant third meeting house of the town’s Congregational Church. By the early twentieth century there were great commercial pressures on the church to sell their property. In 1938, a new church was built not far away on North Main Street. The new building was modeled on the Greek Revival 1858 church and has the same stone steps, cornerstone, bell and weathervane, which were salvaged from the old building.

George Harrington House (1815)

When Samuel Lay laid out New Street (now Pratt Street) in Essex, the first home to be built on the street was that of his son-in-law, George Harrington. Around that time, the Essex ropewalk, in which Harrington was involved, located south of the street, but was soon moved to a new location just to the north. The Harrington House, built around 1815, was later owned by sea captain John Rockwell, who was in the navy during the Civil War.

Elias Austin House (1743)

The Elias Austin House, also known as the Moses Austin House, was built around 1745 and stands on the west side of Main Street in Durham. Elias Austin purchased the lot in 1743 and the property passed to his wife and sons when he died in 1766. One of his sons was Moses Austin, who was born in the house in 1761. Moses Austin later left Durham and reached Texas in the 1820, where the government of Spanish-controlled Mexico granted him land to settle 300 Anglo-American families. Austin died in 1821, but his son, Stephen F. Austin, fulfilled his father’s dream, becoming known as the “Father of Texas.” The Austin House in Durham was sold out of the family in 1783 and has since had many different owners. The building served as Durham’s post office from 1909 to 1935. A front porch supported by pillars once wrapped around three sides of the house, but was removed sometime in the last two decades.

The Lines-Curtin House (1900)

On the corner of West Main and Cedar Streets in New Britain is a large Shingle style house, built around 1900 by Charles W. Lines, who ran a grist mill. Lines later moved to Newington and the house was purchased by John M. Curtin, partner in a furniture dealer and undertakers company. The house was the Curtin Funeral Home until the late 1960s and today is used as office space.

An advertisement in the Official Souvenir and Program of the Dedication of the Soldiers’ monument, New Britain, Conn., September 19, 1900.