Ansonia became a separate town from Derby in 1889 and was incorporated as a city in 1893. The city’s earlier borough court building on Water Street was superseded by a new City Hall on Main Street in 1905, which originally housed the police headquarters and city court as well. There are two monuments in front of City Hall: one honors Ansonia’s war veterans and the other the members of the Ansonia Volunteer Fire Department.
Congregation Tephereth Israel in New Britain was formed in 1925 when orthodox Lithuanian immigrants withdrew from the conservative Temple B’nai Israel. The synagogue on Winter Street, which combines elements of the Romanesque and Colonial Revival styles, was built in 1925 to 1928 and was designed by Adolf Feinberg, an Austrian-born architect who arrived in the United States in 1921. Feinberg also designed Beth David Synagogue in West Hartford. Congregation Tephereth Israel, which today has a small membership, is undertaking a building repair program. For five decades, Rabbi Henry Okolica has been spiritual leader of the Orthodox synagogue, as well as serving as Jewish chaplain at Central Connecticut State University.
Dr. John Redfield of Guilford, who was living in an earlier home built in 1768, constructed a new mansion house on the Green in 1780. The property where the new house was built had previously belonged to David Naughty, a merchant. After Naughty’s death in 1739, his wife Ruth Naughty was co-executor of his will, along with nephew David Naughty II. Ruth Naughty successfully managed her husband’s affairs, paying his debts in Boston. When she died in 1773, she named Dr. Redfield as executor of her will, but he was soon caught up in a lawsuit with David II. Dr. Redfield won the case and, as owner of the entire property, tore down the Naughty House in order to build his own. The outraged Naughty later stipulated in his will that he be buried across the Green from Redfield’s house with his head sticking out above ground to stare at his enemy’s home. These wishes were never carried out. Since 1945, the Redfield House has been owned by the Guilford Savings Bank and serves as the bank’s main office.
The Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church traces its origin to 1833, when the first African American church in Hartford split into two congregations. One was Talcott Street (now Faith) Congregational Church and the other later became Metropolitan A.M.E. Zion, which is Hartford’s oldest black Methodist congregation. With earlier church buildings having been located on Elm street and later on Pearl street, the congregation moved to the current church, on Main Street in Hartford’s North End, in the late 1920s. This High Victorian Gothic church was built in 1874 as North Methodist Episcopal Church and in 1926 it was bought by Emmanuel Synagogue, the interim owners until the building became the Metropolitan A.M.E. Zion Church.
The one room Schoolhouse No. 3 was built in 1823 and served West Avon until 1938. In 1981, the building was threatened with demolition to make way for the construction of the new Avon Library. The Avon Historical Society and other local activists arranged to have the school moved to its current address on West Main Street, where it serves as the Living Museum of Avon.
Orrin Thompson founded the carpet industry in Enfield, establishing the Thompsonville Carpet Manufacturing Company in 1828. In 1832, Thompson built an impressive brick residence on 32 acres in Enfield. The company grew, but by the 1850s Thompson was in debt and had to turn it over to his creditors, who renamed it the Hartford Carpet Company. Thompson’s house was later owned by G. Harrison Mifflin and subsequently sold to the Felician Sisters: the Congregation of Sisters of St. Felix of Cantalice, Our Lady of the Angels Province. The building currently houses an adult day care facility. In blog related news, please also take a look at my new blog, Historic Places, where I will feature places I have visited recently outside of Connecticut and Massachusetts.
Richard Hayden, an Essex shipbuilder and merchant, built the first brick house in town in 1806. He had earlier lived in the house which is now the Griswold Inn. Hayden was head of the Hayden Shipyard and he built a ship’s chandlery in 1813, which was later moved across Main Street. During the War of 1812, he built a privateer schooner, Black Prince, which he advertised in New York. This was one of the causes of the British Raid on Essex in 1814, which led to serious financial losses for Hayden, who died two years later. His widow and children remained in the Federal-style house until 1833, when Richard Hayden’s cousin, Samuel Hayden, bought the house. In 1894, Samuel’s daughter, Mary Tucker, left the house and furniture to St. John’s Episcopal Parish and it is now the church’s rectory.