Randolph Please built two homes in Middletown, on opposite sides of College Street, where it meets Broad Street. The first is a Federal townhouse, built around 1822, which once had four chimneys and a kitchen ell. The house is part of the Broad Street Historic District.
Joseph Parke was a cooper who moved from Groton to Middle Haddam in 1758, when the community was still developing into what would become an important shipbuilding port on the Connecticut River. One of Parke’s sons built an asymmetrical saltbox house at Knowles Landing in 1770. After the Revolutionary War, it was occupied by Chauncey Buckley, a wealthy merchant and owner of privateers during the war.
Dr. John Slade Ely was professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine at Yale Medical School from 1897 until his death in 1906 (when a memorial professorship was established in his honor). Dr. Ely lived in a Tudor-style house, designed by S. G. Taylor, on Trumbull Street in New Haven. When his widow, Grace T. Ely, died in 1960, she left the house as a non-profit arts center.
Psi Upsilon, the fifth oldest college fraternity in the United States, was founded at Union College in 1833. The Xi chapter was established at Wesleyan University in 1843 and the fraternity’s building was constructed in 1893. The Dutch Renaissance Revival building was designed by Colin C. Wilson and constructed of yellow Perth Amboy brick.
The Timothy Lester House, on Orange Street in New Haven, has been linked to the architect Henry Austin, but the details of its construction are unknown. Built in 1846, it may have been the first, and is certainly one of the earliest, Italian Villas (including a prominent tower) in New Haven. Lester worked for a boot manufacturing company.
Cheshire‘s Greek Revival Town Hall was built in 1867. Before then, town meetings had been held in the Beach Tavern. In 1913, a wing was added for the telephone company and fire department (the telephone co. moved out 1934 and the fire dept. in 1954). The building was again enlarged in 1989, with a new main entrance in the rear.
Around 1890, St. John’s Episcopal Church, the first Episcopal church in Essex, was built in Centerbrook, near what is today the Essex Steam Train station. At the time, the Essex Village section of town was becoming more prominent, so around 1800 the church building was moved to Prospect Street. In 1897, a new church was constructed at Main and Cross Streets. This 1897 church contains many stained glass windows taken from the earlier building. The church was designed in the Richardsonian Romanesque style by Bridgeport architect Joseph W. Northrup (he also designed houses and his plans were used in other parts of the country, including a house in Texas). In 1999, a new construction project linked the church to the adjacent parish house. The church rectory is the Richard Hayden House on Main Street.