Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Author: Daniel

Cheney Building (1876)

Built in 1876 on Main Street in Hartford for two brothers from the family that owned the Cheney Silk Mills in Manchester. The R. and F. Cheney Building was designed by the famous architect, Henry Hobson Richardson, and represents an early work in his distinctive Richardsonian Romanesque style, later exemplified in the (now gone) Marshall Field’s Wholesale Store, built in Chicago in 1885-1887. The Cheney Block is considered one of Richardson’s greatest buildings and considered by some to be Hartford’s most architecturally significant building. Originally used for retail space on the ground floor, with offices and apartment space above, it later housed Brown Thomson‘s and then G. Fox and Co.‘s Department stores. Today it is known as the Richardson Building and is again used for a mix of office and retail space, including a Residence Inn and the City Steam Brewery Cafe.

Ashmead-Colt House (1859)

Built in 1859 for James Ashmead, on Wethersfield Avenue in Hartford, adjacent to the Day-Taylor House and across from Samuel Colt’s Armsmear. Ashmead and his partner, Edmund Hurlbut, were in the business of gold beating. Sam Colt’s nephew, Sam C. Colt, bought the Italianate house in 1865 and it was most likely he who added the Second Empire style tower and porte-cochere. A later owner added the Colonial Revival portico and pilasters on the corners. Today, the house is home to a legal firm.

Dr. Alexander King House (1764)

Built in 1764 on South Main Street in Suffield for Dr. Alexander King, who was a physician, farmer, and deacon of the Congregational church, as well as serving as a selectman, town clerk and State Representative. The house, which features an original porch leading to the doctor’s office, was later bought and restored by Mr. Samuel Reid Spencer, who gave it to the Suffield Historical Society in 1960. It is currently open as a house museum, which includes galleries on local history.

Rev. James Lockwood House (1767)

Rev. James Lockwood, Wethersfield’s Congregational minister from 1738-1772, had turned down the presidencies of Yale and Princeton to stay in town. In gratitude, members of the congregation of First Church donated the money, materials and labor to build this center-chimney, gambrel-roofed house on Main Street in 1767. It was therefore not a parsonage, but instead a personal gift to the pastor. It currently serves as a rectory for neighboring Trinity Episcopal Church.

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Phelps-Hatheway House (1761)

The earliest part of the house was the main block with center-chimney, built around 1761-1767 for merchant Shem Burbank. In 1788, the house was purchased by the merchant, and extensive land owner, Oliver Phelps, who altered the roof to a gambrel style and added other features of the fashionable Georgian style. In 1794, he further altered the house by adding a new wing in the Federal style. The main architect of the addition was Thomas Hayden of Windsor. A young Asher Benjamin, later to become one of the most important architects of the Federal period, was one of the workers on the new wing and carved the Ionic capitals of the wing’s entryway. The interior of the Federal wing is notable for its surviving original French-made wallpaper. When Phelps died, the house was owned by the Hatheway family for a century and is currently open as a house museum, the Phelps-Hatheway House & Garden, administered by the Antiquarian and Landmarks Society.

Municipal Building, Hartford (1915)

When the new Connecticut State Capitol was built in 1878, the Old State House became Hartford’s City Hall until 1915, when a new Municipal Building was completed. This building’s Beaux-Arts design was chosen after an architectural competition which required that the new structure resemble the Old State House. And as everyone still thought of the earlier building as “City Hall,” the new one would not take that name but was instead to be known as the “Municipal Building.” In addition to the neoclassical ornamentation on the exterior, the structure, designed by Davis and Brooks, is notable for its impressive three-story central atrium.

Stanley-Whitman House (1720)

Built on High Street in Farmington in 1720 for Deacon John Stanley, and later purchased by the Reverend Samuel Whitman in 1735, the Stanley-Whitman House has been a museum since 1935. The house is an excellent example of a New England saltbox. Once thought to have been built in the seventeenth century, it is now dated to 1720, but displays many stylistic features typical of seventeenth century houses, including the second-story overhang with pendant drops and the diamond-paned windows.