Built around 1835, the Greek Revival house at 756 South Britain Road in South Britain, Southbury was the home of George Canfield (died 1870). The house was built on the site of Aaron Downs’ house. Canfield married Cornelia H. Beecher (1800-1876) in 1824. Canfield was a harness-maker and his harness and saddling shop was located south of his house.
The house at 24 Hurlbutt Road in Gales Ferry, Ledyard was built in 1845 by Stephen Perkins, a whaling master, on land he had acquired in 1844 from Ralph Hurlbutt. Perkins owned the house until 1859, after which it had a series of owners who rented the house to different tenants until it was purchased by Warren Stoddard, son of Charles H. Stoddard, in 1898. In the 1860s and 1870s the house was rented by Capt. Gurdon L. Allyn (1799-1891), who wrote the book The Old Sailor’s Story (1879) about his many whaling and sealing voyages. As related in the History of the Town of Ledyard, 1650-1900 (1901), by John Avery:
In May, 1861, Capt. Allyn obtained a commission as acting master and coast pilot in the United States Navy, and received an order in June, from Com. Dupont, to report for duty on the United States frigate, “Saint Lawrence.” He was a participant in the famous Merrimac and Monitor engagement at Hampton Roads, in March, 1862. He had an honorable career in the navy, and in due time was discharged on account of his age. His salary while in the service, and the prize-money and pension, which he afterwards received, were a great help to him in his declining years.
Gurdon’s son, Gurdon F. Allyn, became a farmer and auctioneer in Salem.
The Congregational Church in Chester had two meeting two meeting houses (the second of which, built in 1793, became the old Town Hall, now called the Chester Meeting House) before constructing a new church on West Main Street in 1846. The Baptist Church constructed their own church next door in 1870. The two churches merged in 1941 to create the United Church of Chester. The Congregational Church was moved and attached to the rear of the Baptist Church building (29 West Main Street) in 1948-1949 to serve the united congregation.
In 1832 two similar Greek Revival houses were built in Southport for two brothers: the Francis D. Perry House and the Henry Perry House. The latter house, located at 45 Westway Road, was left by Henry Perry (d. 1847) to his wife Henrietta (d. 1892). It was then sold to Elisha C. Sherwood in 1892. Sherwood restored the house and on the north side he added a two-story section with an ornate first-story Palladian window and a two-story bay window.
Adjacent to the Hadlyme Congregational Church in East Haddam is the Hadlyme North School. A one-room schoolhouse, it was built in 1794 and was initially run by the Ecclesiastical Society, later by a School Society and then by the town starting in 1865. The school closed in 1929 and by 1967 the building was in danger of demolition. The North School Society was formed to preserve the building, which is maintained by the Society and the Congregational Church.
In the third quarter of the nineteenth century, Neland Loomis of Suffield built a group of houses (which formed an enclave called “Baghdad”) on South Main Street to house his tobacco workers. Pictured above are the Greek Revival houses at 195-197 (left) and 183-185 (center), built c. 1850. On the left is building (173-179 South Main Street) erected in 1918 as a store with apartments above.
The Town Hall of Branford, built in 1857, has been attributed to the architect Henry Austin of New Haven. It has a columned front portico that was added in the early twentieth century. The building was renovated in 1869 and had a rear addition constructed in 1968. The building is located at 1019 Main Street.
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