Samuel F. Cadwell House (1879)

This week we’ll focus on buildings in the North End of Hartford. The Samuel F. Cadwell House, at 20 Belden Street in the Clay/Arsenal neighborhood, is one of the most impressive brick Victorian Gothic houses in Hartford; so impressive, in fact, that it is sometimes called the “Mark Twain House of the North End.” It was built in 1879 for Samuel Foote Cadwell, a dealer in seeds and agricultural supplies. The house was only sold out of the Cadwell family in 1967. Later abandoned, the Cadwell House and other nineteenth-century houses on Belden Street were recently rehabilitated.

Plantsville Congregational Church (1866)

Members of the Southington Congregational Church met in 1863 to form a new congregation in the Plantsville section of town. The Plantsville Congregational Church was built at 99 Church Street in 1866. An excellent example of the Gothic Revival style, it was designed by J. Cleveland Cady, a nationally prominent architect. An 1868 book entitled The Architects’ and Builders’ Guide: An Elaborate Description of all the Public, Commercial, Philanthropic, Literary, & Ecclesiastical Buildings Already Constructed, and About to be Erected Next Spring in New York and its Environs, with their Cost Respectively, and the Names of the Architects and Builders, by John W. Kennion, contains the following description of “The New Congregational Church at Plantsville, Conn.,”

This building, designed by Mr. J. C. Cady, Architect of New York, is of the Gothic style, adapted carefully to the wants of the congregation. It is completely free from all shams and make-believes. The interior wood-work is of chestnut and black walnut, (except the framings of the open timber roof, which is of pine,) all waxed or oiled, showing the natural and beautiful grain of the wood. The walls are colored in flat tint, the ceiling a deep blue, and the side walls a delicate harmonious neutral. The windows are filled with stained glass of quiet and pleasing tones. Back of the pulpit, is a large arched opening, richly moulded, which is the frame of the apse, or semi-circular alcove, in which are the clergymen’s seats. Two large dormer windows in the roof, one either side of the pulpit, contribute greatly to the light and cheerfulness of that portion of the church—the light falling down upon the pulpit and the people, and not being directly in the eyes of the congregation, as is the case where there are windows back of the pulpit. It is capable of seating about five hundred worshipers, all of whom can see the speaker, hear him as easily as in an ordinary room, and enjoy good ventilation. The exterior of the church is quite picturesque, with graceful tower and spire, capacious porches, gables, &c., all harmonizing with the situation and expressive of their various purposes.

Rose Hill (1852)

Rose Hill is a Gothic Revival house at 63 Prospect Street in Waterbury and was home to three of the city’s most prominent manufacturing families. Designed by Henry Austin of New Haven, it was built in 1852 in the “cottage style” popularized by A.J. Downing in such books as The Architecture of Country Houses. It was constructed near the base of a hill that would soon be developed as a neighborhood filled with many other Victorian-era houses. Rose Hill was built for Wlliam H. Scovill, who lived in the house for only six months before his death. The house was then vacant for a decade, until in 1863 it became home to the successful businessman Joseph Chauncey Welton and his wife, Jane Porter Welton. The couple loved to entertain and the house became a center of Waterbury society. Their daughter, Caroline Josephine Welton, was known for her fondness for her black stallion Knight, although the horse had kicked her father in the head and killed him. She never married and after her death in a blizzard on Longs Peak in Colorado in 1884 she left money for a bronze statue of Knight to be placed on a memorial fountain on Waterbury Green. Her relatives contested her will, which also gave $100,000 to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, on the grounds that she was insane, but they failed to stop the bequest. The statue was carved by Karl Gerhardt, whose trip to study in Paris at the École des Beaux-Arts in 1881 was financed by Mark Twain. The Rose Hill estate was next purchased by Augustus Sabin Chase. He added porches to the first and second floors. Today the mansion is home to Stepping Stone, the local program of the North American Family Institute (NAFI). It is currently a 22 bed secured residential facility with a treatment program serving delinquent girls committed to the Department of Children and Families. Plans to expand the facility a decade ago met with local resistance.

St. Bernard Catholic Church, Rockville (1904)

The first Catholic Mass in Rockville (Vernon) was celebrated by fifteen Catholics in a house owned by the Paper Mill Company. St. Bernard’s Parish was established in Rockville in 1854 and the first church was completed in 1856. The church was destroyed by fire in 1904 and the cornerstone for the present church was laid five months later. The new church was dedicated on September 20, 1908. Built on a prominent site on Saint Bernard Terrace, the church was designed by Joseph A. Jackson, who had earlier designed the parish school in 1895.

Union Episcopal Church, Riverton (1829)

The first church to be built in the village of Riverton in Barkhamsted was the Union Episcopal Church. The Gothic structure was constructed of rusticated granite in 1829-1830 under the superintendence of Jesse Ives, first keeper of the Old Riverton Inn. For about thirty years, the church was used as a museum for the Hitchcock Chair Company, whose factory was located just down the street. After closing in the 1990s, the museum sold off its collection in 2003. Two years later, the former church was sold to Peter Greenwood, a glass blower, who converted it into a studio and gallery.