Old Town Hall, Fairfield (1794)

The Old Town Hall in Fairfield was built in 1794 as a county courthouse, replacing its predecessor, built in 1769 and burnt by the British in 1779. That structure had replaced the earliest courthouse in town, built in 1720. According to the Centennial Commemoration of the Burning of Fairfield, Connecticut (1879), the 1769 building “had only recently been erected in place of one standing before where Mr. Hobart’s store now stands. A noted thief named Fraser, confined in the jail then connected with it, had set that building on fire on the 4th of April, 1768. Hence had come the rebuilding, and the erection of a separate prison which was located where St. Paul’s church now stands.” The 1794 building also served as the Town Hall and in 1870, it was aggrandized by being converted into the Second Empire style. In the late 1930s, the building was again remodeled and restored to a Federal-style appearance by local architect Cameron Clark, with two new wings added on either side. Town offices moved out when a new building, Independence Hall, was completed in 1979.

Brown-Elton Tavern (1810)

The striking pink, Federal-style Brown-Elton Tavern, located on the Green in Burlington, was built in 1810 as the private home of Giles Griswold, a merchant. It’s design is attributed to builder David Hoadley. By 1820, Griswold had relocated to Georgia and his properties were being foreclosed. The house was soon acquired by Julius Hotchkiss, who died in 1825. His widow, Laura Hotchkiss, later sold the Tavern, which passed through other owners over the years (pdf). The building served as a tavern on the Hartford and Litchfield stage line and later as an inn along the George Washington Turnpike. It was purchased by the Town of Burlington in 1974 and is now home to the Burlington Historical Society, which is restoring the Tavern as a museum.

Cyrus Beardslee House (1825)

The Cyrus Beardslee House, at 754 Monroe Turnpike in Monroe, is a brick Federal-style house built around 1823-1825 by Austin Lum, a brick mason, for Hall Beardslee, who deeded it to his son, Cyrus H. Beardslee, a lawyer who served in the state legislature for seven years, being Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1846. The house later became a boys’ school known as Gray’s Academy, operated by Dr. Robert Gray. In 1865, it was purchased by St. Peter’s Church Women to become the parsonage of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church. After nearly ninety years, the house was sold to an antique’s dealer and then became the Rectory of St. Jude Roman Catholic Church. Today it is again a private home.

24 Lewis Street, Hartford (1840)

The former house, now a business, at 24 Lewis Street in Hartford was built around 1840. It has been attributed to the builder Austin Daniels, who also probably constructed the two adjacent buildings. Stylistically, the house represents the transition from the Federal to the Greek Revival styles and is typical of houses built in Hartford in the decades before the Civil War. The Italianate-style front portico was added later in the nineteenth century and the enclosed porch is a later Colonial Revival addition.

North Congregational Church, New Hartford (1828)

The first church building in New Hartford was the Town Hill Church, which took ten years to build, 1739 to 1749. By 1828, it was necessary to build a new church, but residents in North Village wanted the replacement to be relocated closer to their own homes. Forming the North Ecclesiastical Society of New Hartford, some residents in the northern part of town constructed their own Congregational Church. A new church was also built on Town Hill, but another split led to the establishment of Nepaug Congregational Church in 1848. The Town Hill Church was abandoned in 1854 and taken down in 1859. The interior of the North Congregational Church was renovated in the later nineteenth century.