Around 1810, John Sheldon built a house in Mansfield Center, on what is now known as Storrs Road, on land he had purchased from Benjamin Storrs. At one time, the house had a Greek-style entry portico, which was replaced by the current porch in the late nineteenth century. Sheldon, a saddle maker, was related to the famous Sheldon family of Deerfield, Mass.
The Altnaveigh Inn and Restaurant, on Storrs Road in the Spring Hill area of Mansfield, is located in a colonial house built by Isaac Sargeant, on land given to him by his father, John Sargeant, probably in 1734. The house was later owned by Dan Storrs, who purchased it from Sargeant’s widow in 1794. It was later bought by Azariah Freeman and remained in his family for over a century. It may also have, for a time, been occupied by the miniature portraitist, George Freeman. In 1951, it was purchased by Edith McComb, who named it Altnaveigh, Gaelic for “hill top.” For much of the last century it has been an inn and restaurant.
Daniel Crocker built a house on Storrs Road in Mansfield Center in 1794, which he briefly operated as a tavern. After declaring bankruptcy, he sold the house in 1799 to Rev. John Sherman, minister of Mansfield’s First Congregational Church. In 1805, Sherman published One God in one person only: and Jesus Christ a Being distinct from God, dependent upon Him for his existence, and his various powers; maintained and defended, which has been described as “the first formal and elaborate defense of Unitarianism in New England.” Facing efforts by his Trinitarian congregation to dismiss him for his beliefs, Sherman left Mansfield in 1806, moving to New York state where he would become the founder of the Trenton Falls Resort. His house continued to serve as First Church’s parsonage until 1953.
The 1895 William Grant House, at the intersection of Prospect and High Streets in Willimantic, was built in the Queen Anne style, featuring elements of the stick style. It is one of the many Victorian houses for which the city of Willimantic (a “census-designated place” in the town of Windham) is known. The house is currently owned by Eastern Connecticut State University and is used as an alumni house. It will be part of Willimantic’s 2008 Home Tour in June.
In 1742, when Bristol (known as New Cambridge) was still a part of Farmington, its residents received the privilege, from the Connecticut General Court, to have their own congregational services during the winter months. A seperate ecclesiastical society was formed in 1744 and the congregation settled its first minister in 1747. Their first meeting house was soon completed on Federal Hill Green, which had been chosen as the center of the new community. A school was completed in 1754 and, later, a second meeting house to replace the first. The current First Congregational Church is the third building on the site, constructed in 1832 at the intersection of Maple Street and Prospect Place. It was designed by Benjamin Palmer in the Greek Revival style, although the steeple has a Gothic elements.
Bristol’s High School building of 1890, at the intersection of Center and Summer Streets, was designed by Bristol-born architect Theodore Peck (who also designed such buildings in Bristol as a house for his brother, Miles Lewis Peck). The school displays the hallmarks of the Richardsonian Romanesque, including the use of stone (here added as trim on a brick building) and semicircular Romanesque arches. The style was named for the influential architect H.H. Richardson, who designed the Cheney Building in Hartford. The High School, which was expanded in 1912, was used as a school until 1922, when a larger building was needed. It has since served various purposes and was named the Messier Building. One notable change to the building since 1890 is a significant shortening of the original chimney. It is currently being renovated as the new home of the Bristol Historical Society.
Miles Lewis built in 1801-1802 for his new wife, Isabinda Peck Lewis, on Maple Street in Bristol, is now the home of the American Clock and Watch Museum. Lewis was the son of Abel Lewis, who owned the Lewis Tavern. While Miles Lewis and his wife had no children, a niece of Isabinda came to live with them, and Peck descendants lived in the house until 1952. The next year it was bought by the Bristol Clock Museum. In 1956, a new wing was added to the museum, constructed with wood paneling saved from the 1728 house of Ebenezer Barnes.
