The Old Academy, on Main Street in Wethersfield, was built in 1801-1804 in the Federal style by the town’s First School Society. In 1824, the Rev. Joseph Emerson moved his female seminary, which had previously operated in Massachusetts in Byfield and Saugus, to the Old Academy, where it remained until his death in 1833. The building was also used as Wethersfield’s Town Hall and Library and now houses offices and the Research Collections of the Wethersfield Historical Society.
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Built in 1769, on Sedgwick Road in what is now West Hartford, for Benjamin Colton, son of the Rev. Benjamin Colton who was the West Division of Hartford’s first minister from 1713 until his death in 1759. It was next owned by the first owner’s son, Joseph Colton, and later by his daughter and her husband, Dr. Edward Brace.
The Chapel of Trinity College in Hartford was completed in 1932 and was designed by Philip H. Frohman in the Perpendicular Gothic style. Frohman was the architect of the Washington National Cathedral. There’s an art history thesis paper (pdf file) about the Chapel.
The house built on South Main Street in West Hartford for Asa Gillet in 1760 (although it may date as early as 1725) is one of the oldest on Main Street. Asa’s grandfather, Joseph Gillet, was a signer of the petition in 1710 that requested a West Division of Hartford be established. In that year, the population of what would later become West Hartford was 164.
Built in 1772, on Old Main Street in East Windsor Hill for Smith Bailey, a goldsmith and silversmith. Bailey was married to a granddaughter of Timothy Edwards and had a shop in the building that is now the East Windsor Hill Post Office. His gambrel-roofed house was later owned by neighbor Lucy Webster, who sold it to Daniel Burnap in 1786. Burnap was a famous clock maker, who also worked with silver and brass in his East Windsor workshop. The most famous apprentice he trained was Eli Terry, who was born in the town and would become a prominent clock maker and a pioneer in industrial manufacturing.
The original Colt Armory was built in 1855 and was a central part of Samuel Colt‘s firearms-making empire. Based in the district of Hartford known as Coltsville, the armory was later joined by additional buildings, including housing for workers. The Colt mansion, Armsmear, was also built on a nearby hill, overlooking the factory complex. Three years after Colt’s death, the original armory was destroyed by fire in 1864. It was then rebuilt by Colt’s widow, Elizabeth Colt, using designs by the company’s general manager, General William B. Franklin. The new building was designed to be fireproof and also larger than its predecessor. It was also more decorative, with a design based on the styles of the Italian Renaissance.
The new Colt Armory also carried over the most dramatic feature of the original structure, the blue onion dome with gold stars, topped by a gold orb and a rampant colt, the original symbol of the Colt Manufacturing Company. Today, a gilded fiberglass replica is used, the gilded wood original now being displayed at the Museum of Connecticut History. As for Sam Colt‘s use of the famous onion dome, a distinctive feature easily noted by drivers on I-91, there are different theories concerning its origins, ranging from its being a tribute to his early Russian business contacts, to simply being a dramatic marketing statement which no one would forget. Coltsville is now undergoing plans for adaptive reuse and there is support for transforming the complex into a National Park.
Built around 1774 in Guilford by the blacksmith, Thomas Griswold III, for his sons, John and Ezra. It eventually became the property of their cousin George, and was passed down through his descendants until 1958, when it was purchased by the Guilford Keeping Society. This historical society preserves the house as a museum and has undertaken two major restorations, in 1974 and 1995. (more…)
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