A good example of the American Foursquare style is the house just east of the Market on Bantam Road in the Bantam section of Litchfield (its official address is 15 Tulip Drive). It was built in 1915 to serve as the parsonage of the Bantam Methodist Church. The church sold the property to the Bantam Lumber Company in 1973. The house was likely a mail order precut kit house produced by The Aladdin Company.
In the early nineteenth century, town meetings in Pomfret were held in churches and other borrowed buildings. In the 1830s there was a movement to build a permanent town hall, but the citizens disputed where to locate the building. Eventually a council was formed to select the location. To ensure neutrality, the council of three was composed of individuals who were not members of the Pomfret community, being chosen from the neighboring towns of Hampton, Thompson, and Killingly. The spot chosen was roughly midway between the town’s two larger villages of Abington and Pomfret Center. Erected in 1841 (at what is now 17 Town House Road), the new building would serve as Town House for many years and is now owned by the Pomfret Historical Society.
Read more
According to the sign on the house at 62 East Main Street in Mystic, the residence was built in 1892 for Allen Avery [possibly Allen Avery (1838-1915)?] by John Heath. It also lists a later owner, Henry S. Miner, “ships carpenter.”
The G. T. Loomis House, at 15 Lester Avenue in Pawcatuck, was built in 1905. The owner may have been the G. T. Loomis who was a photographer in the Westerly, R.I. area. (more…)
James Johnston, Jr. had a long career at the Aetna Fire Insurance Company of Hartford, starting in 1902. Listed as a stenographer in 1909, by the mid-1930s he was agency supervisor of the company’s the southern department. Johnston’s 1907 house, an example of the American Foursquare house form, is at 15 Elm Street in East Hartford. Johnston held a number of public offices in East Hartford, including city clerk, fire commissioner, and serving on the board of education. According to an article that appeared in the Hartford Courant, July 18, 1940, James Johnston of 15 Elm Street protested that he and several others had been ignored by the 1940 Census. An checkup reveled that the East Hartford division might have missed as many as 300 persons.
The two-family house at 11-13 Naubuc Avenue in Glastonbury was built in 1912 by Richard J. Wooldridge (born c. 1879), a plumber. He and his family occupied one half of the house and rented out the other half.
The house at 36 Hurlbutt Road in Gales Ferry, Ledyard, was built in 1912 for John J. Lawless, a lawyer and military veteran. Active in New London, Lawless apparently had homes in both Ledyard and the Quaker Hill section of Waterford, his home town. As related in the Gales Ferry news section of the Norwich Bulletin of Saturday, July 10, 1915:
Mr. and Mrs. John J. Lawless entertained Monday Mrs. Carlos Chapman of Groton, Mrs. D. J. Cavanaugh, the Misses Beaudry and Earle Wooten of New London. In the evening Ernestine Talbot, Mrs. Lawless’ young daughter, entertained her young schoolmates and some friends with fireworks and light refreshments on the lawn.
They were celebrating Independence Day on July 5 (no doubt because July 4 that year was a Sunday). A description of the career of John J. Lawless can be found in A Modern History of New London County, Vol. II (1922), edited by Benjamin Tinkham Marshall:
John J. Lawless was born at Vinal Haven, Maine, May 17, 1876. He received the preliminary portion of his education in the public schools of New London, having been brought to this city when very young by his parents. After graduating from the New London High School, during which time his attention had been turned forcibly to the legal profession, he decided to make it his career in life and, accordingly, prepared for college at Mystic Valley Institute, graduating from this institution in 1901 and subsequently matriculating at the Albany Law School, from which he won the degree of Bachelor of Laws in the class of 1903. Returning to New London, he entered the law office of Abel P. Tanner, where he remained until 1904, when, after passing his bar examinations, he established himself in the practice of his chosen profession which has proven extraordinarily successful, having grown extensively up to the present time.
Major Lawless has always been interested in military life, and during the Spanish-American War enlisted as a private in Company A, Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, being later commissioned a second lieutenant. After the war he was commissioned captain of the Third Regiment, and held this post for many years. The World War offered him another opportunity and this he was quick and eager to grasp. Successfully passing the examinations for major at Fort H. G. Wright, New York, he was sent to Plattsburg, where he was assigned to the 9th Company of the New England Training Division, and was mustered out of service July 15, 1919. Major Lawless is now a member of the American Legion, and is also past commander of the George M. Cole Camp, United Spanish War Veterans.
[. . .]
Respected as he is both in New London and his home town, Waterford, his advance can have known no deviation from the strictest probity and the most up-right methods. Such a record is certainly worthy of emulation.
Major Lawless married, July 5, 1910, Alice Wilbur Talbot, daughter of George L. and Emma Wilbur Talbot, of Putnam, Connecticut.
You must be logged in to post a comment.