Frank E. Wolcott House (1924)

At 26 West Hill Drive, in the West Hill Historic District in West Hartford, is a Colonial/Tudor Revival house, built in 1924 and designed by Smith & Bassette for Frank E. Wolcott. His manufacturing company produced the Silex coffee pot. A vacuum brewer, the Silex coffee pot, utilizing heatproof Pyrex glass, was first produced in 1915. The rights to its design, which originated in Europe, had been acquired in 1909 by two sisters, Mrs. Ann Bridges and Mrs. Sutton, of Salem, Massachusetts. Wolcott’s company was later renamed the Silex Company. Its first patent for a coffee pot was assigned to Hazel M. Bridges in 1926. Frank E. Wolcott filed additional patents in the 1930s.

Emanuel Synagogue (1927)

Formed in 1919, Emanuel Synagogue in Hartford was Connecticut’s first Conservative congregation. In 1920, members dedicated its first synagogue in the former North Methodist Church on Main Street. With a growing membership, the congregation purchased farmland on Woodland Street in Hartford’s Upper Albany neighborhood. A new synagogue, designed by Ebbets and Frid, was completed in 1927. Emanuel Synagogue’s cemetery is located on Jordan Lane in Wethersfield. By the 1950s, with many Emanuel members having moved to West Hartford, the synagogue purchased land on Mohegan Drive and built a social hall and religious school there in 1959. Services continued to be held at Woodland Street until 1968. A new Emanuel Synagogue was completed on Mohegan Drive in 1970. The former Hartford synagogue is now Faith Seventh Day Adventist Church.

New Canaan Playhouse (1923)

The Playhouse in New Canaan is a 1923 movie theater at 89 Elm Street. Originally having a single screen, it was later converted to two screens and continues today as a first run movie theater, owned by the town but managed by Bow Tie Cinemas. This past year the Playhouse was renovated, with new seats and bathroom and a display case in the left front window, which had earlier been boarded up and painted white (as seen in the image above).

Immanuel Lutheran Church, Bristol (1907)

German immigrants founded the German Lutheran Church in Bristol in 1892 (or 1894). A church was built on School Street, on the south bank of the Pequabuck River, in 1896. A split in the church soon emerged: one group, which would affiliate with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, constructed Immanuel Lutheran Church in 1907 at 154 Meadow Street. The other group built Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church on Judd Street (the original church building has since been replaced) in 1906. School buildings were constructed adjacent to Immanuel Lutheran Church in 1925 and 1963.

The John E. Luddy House (1921)

At 261 Broad Street in Windsor is the house built by John E. Luddy in 1921. Luddy, manager of the Connecticut Leaf Tobacco Association, was the founder of the Windsor Company, a textile manufacturer which produced shade cloth. This gauze-like cloth was used to protect the growing shade tobacco from the sun. Luddy also set up a trust fund to support the Connecticut Valley Tobacco Historical Society. Luddy’s house and carriage house were sold to the Town of Windsor in 1964 and today the Luddy House is home to the Windsor Chamber of Commerce.