Guilford Smith Memorial Library (1836)

In 1836, Charles Smith (1807-1893) built a Greek Revival house on Main Street in South Windham. The following year, he and Harvey Winchester bought a nearby factory that they used for the manufacture of paper, forming the Smith & Winchester Company. Charles Smith‘s son, Guilford Smith (1839-1923), was born in the house. He was a wealthy philanthropist who left $25,000 for the establishment of a library in South Windham. A trust and Board of Trustees were established for in 1930 and the new Guilford Smith Memorial Library, occupying the old Smith House, opened on April 4, 1931.

William Boardman West Boarding House (1848)

By the 1840s, the village of Rockfall in Middlefield was an active industrial area with a number of mills. Between 1845 and 1848, William F. Boardman built two boarding houses for workers on Main Street in Rockfall. The one pictured above is the west boarding house at 127 Main Street; next door is the east boarding house. Otis Smith, who owned the nearby Smith pistol factory, bought the west boarding house in 1873. In the twentieth century, many Polish immigrants settled in the area, including the Drega family. Juzef W. and Weronica Drega acquired the house in 1923. Today it is a two-family house.

Jared Risley House (1860)

Jared Risley purchased the lot at 86-90 Burnside Avenue in East Hartford in 1827. The house that currently stands at that address was either an earlier house that he remodeled or a new house that he built on the site, possibly in the 1860s. Jared Risley (1801-1874) and his son, Seldon (1843-1905) were both carpenters. The house displays features of the Federal and Greek Revival styles.

Kensington Town Hall – Percival School (1855)

In the second half of the nineteenth century, the Town of Berlin had two town halls to serve the two sections of town, Kensington and Worthington. The building at 329 Percival Avenue, built circa 1855, was the Kensington Town Hall until 1907. In that year, the town acquired Brandegee Hall on Worthington Ridge to be a new Town Hall for all of Berlin (it served in that capacity until 1974). The former Kensington Town Hall became Percival School and is now a private residence.

William Gadson Rathbun House (1858)

Built circa 1858, the house at 39 Church Street in Noank was originally the home of William Gadson Rathbun (1831-1913), known as Captain Bill Gad Rathbun. He went to sea as a boy, but in 1849 headed to California for the Gold Rush. Returning after three years he resumed a life at sea, being master of several sailing vessels during his career. In the 1890s Rathbun served as postmaster during the second administration of President Grover Cleveland.