Masonic Temple, Mystic (1911)

At 7 Gravel Street in Mystic is a building erected in 1911-1912 as a Masonic Temple for Charity & Relief Lodge No. 72. The Lodge had its origins as Charity Lodge No. 68, formed in 1825, which first met in Gurton Bill’s Tavern in Groton. The Lodge was inactive from 1846 to 1850 due to its members unwillingness to move to Mystic. After this move took place, the Lodge met on the Stonington side and then on the Groton side of the Mystic River. A split led to the creation in 1869 of Relief Lodge No. 71 on the other side of the river. Charity Lodge lost its rooms in the Central Hall Building on West Main Street due to a fire in 1880 and were invited to used Relief Lodge’s rooms until new quarters were found. The two lodges reunited in 1891-1892 to form Charity and Relief Lodge #72. After almost of century on Gravel Street, the Lodge faced declining membership and the lack of parking. It merged with Asylum Lodge No. 57 and Pawcatuck Lodge No. 90 to form Costal Lodge No. 57, which meets on Pequot Trail in Stonington. In January 2008, the former Masonic Temple on Gravel Street was sold to developers, who converted the building into two condominium units by 2010.

Deacon Darius Knight House (1825)

The house at 93 Chaplin Street in Chaplin has been dated variously to 1840, 1832 and 1825. It was the home of Deacon Darius Knight. The house next south on Chaplin Street, just past the intersection with Tower Hill Road (87 Chaplin Street), was the home of E. W. Day, so the intersection became known as Knight and Day Corner. The Knight House was later home to a minister and a doctor.

Orrin and Electa Hale House (1817)

The house at 181 Main Street in South Glastonbury was originally the home of Orrin Hale (died 1870) of Portland and his wife Electa Taylor Hale (died 1865) of South Glastonbury. The date of their marriage is unknown, but their first child was born in 1817 and they were likely living in their new home by then. The house, which town assessors dated to 1770, combines elements of the Federal and Greek Revival styles.

Capt. George Dickinson House (1830)

As described in the History of Middlesex County, Connecticut (J. B. Beers & Co., 1884),

The Dickinson family, though not among the first settlers, were yet prominent people on Saybrook Point during and after the Revolutionary war. Captain George Dickinson, who was born in 1770, was for many years a ship master and at times resided in foreign ports as agent. He was at Copenhagen, Denmark, when that city was bombarded by Captain, afterward Lord Nelson, and at his death, in 1857, at the age of 81, was the wealthiest man in the town.

Around 1830, Capt. George Dickinson (1770-1857) built a house at what is now 191 North Cove Road in Old Saybrook. The west end of the building contained a ship chandlery.

Peleg S. Barber House (1840)

At 55 Mechanic Street in the village of Pawcatuck in Stonington is a Greek Revival house built circa 1840. The National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination for the Mechanic Street Historic District indicates it is the Peleg S. Barber House. There was a Peleg S. Barber who served in the militia from Stonington in the War of 1812. Another Peleg S. Barber (1823-1901) was prominent resident of Pawcatuck. As related in the Illustrated Popular Biography of Connecticut (1891):

Mr. Barber was born in North Kingston, R. I., April 29, 1823. He received the advantages of a good common school education, and has been largely engaged in mercantile and manufacturing business, though at present confining his attention chiefly to transactions in real estate. He was for sixteen years in cotton manufacturing, and from 1850 to 1853 was in the gold mines of California. He married, early in life, Miss Sarah Gardner, who is still living. Mr. Barber is largely interested in the Pawcatuck National Bank, of which he is, and for sixteen years has been, a director. He is president of the People’s Savings Bank of Pawcatuck; also treasurer of the Pawcatuck Fire District since its organization in 1887, for sixteen years treasurer of his school district, fifteen years a member of the town board of relief, and a notary public. He was on the board of assessors for several years, and has held various other local offices in the town in which he resides, where he has led an active and useful life for thirty-four years, and is highly respected and esteemed by all his townsmen.

Peleg S. Barber was a great philanthropist and community leader. As described in the Sixth Annual Report of the School Committee of the Town of Stonington, Connecticut For the School Year 1915-1916:

At the annual meeting of the Eighteenth School District, held June 28th, 1899, Mr. Barber presented a writing, in which he stated that, “desiring to manifest in a material and permanent manner his interest in the public school he had deposited the sum of one thousand dollars ($1,000) in the Niantic Savings Bank of Westerly to be called The Peleg S. Barber Memorial Fund, the annual interest of which should be divided into three (3) prizes, to be awarded to those three students, of either sex, who are now or may hereafter be registered in the schools of the Eighteenth School District, who shall present the best three essays on any one or more subjects previously announced by the principal.”

When the fine school building on West Broad Street was dedicated in February, 1900, Mr. Barber gave several hundred dollars’ worth of books to the school library and also provided a fund of five hundred dollars ($500.), “to be known as the P. S. Barber Library Fund,” the income from which should be used in the purchase of books to add to and replenish what he desired to be a growing library.

Temple Beth David (1834)

On April 22, 1834, Methodists in Cheshire formed a building committee to undertake the construction of a meeting house. Called the Wesley Chapel, it is one of the last examples in the country of a chapel designed by John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. As related in Joseph Perkins Beach’s History of Cheshire, Connecticut (1912):

A lot of land centrally located was purchased of Jairus Bunnell, on which was built a brick structure at a cost of $3,000. This was dedicated Nov. 22, 1834, by Rev. Schuyler Seager. During the working of the bartyes mines, the congregation greatly increased and the church and finances were in a flourishing condition; the decrease in numbers caused by the removal of so many families has made the work of the (comparatively) few left much harder; but no diminution of ardor or enthusiasm has ever been noted.

A wooden belfry was added to the building in 1870, but it blew down during a storm in 1897. Church membership began to increase with the growth of Cheshire’s population after World War II. In 1959, the church acquired land at 205 Academy Road for future expansion and eventually decided to erect a new building at that location. The new Cheshire United Methodist Church was completed by February, 1970. The church had already sold its 1834 building to Temple Beth David, the town’s first Jewish synagogue, in 1968. The two congregations shared the old building until the new church was ready. In 1984, Temple Beth David completed phase one of an expansion. The building has a Colonial Revival style front entrance vestibule that was expanded southward to link with the new addition.