The first meetinghouse of the Wolcott Congregational Church was built in 1773 on “Benson’s Hill” in Farmingbury, where Farmington and Waterbury then met. It is now the location of Wolcott Green. Farmingbury became the Town of Wolcott in 1796. The current church was constructed in 1841-1842 on the site of the earlier meetinghouse, which burned down in 1839. Brick additions were made to the church in the 1930s and a parish house was attached around 1950.
The Greek Revival farmhouse at 319 Barbour Street in Hartford was built around 1875 by John Clark, with a front porch added around 1900. The rear ell was added in 1915, when the Women’s Aid Society opened a shelter for “friendless and erring women.” John C. Clark, Jr. opened a funeral home in the house in the 1950s, now called Clark, Bell & Bell. John C. Clark, Jr. was the first African-American to serve on the Hartford City Council (1955-1963). On the Council, he helped create the fair rent commission.
Now surrounded by houses of a much later date, the Greek Revival farmhouse at 249-251 Blue Hills Avenue in Hartford was built around 1850. There were once many dairy farms in the area, and this house’s owner, Charles Tuttle, operated one well into the twentieth century.
As described in The Bench and Bar of Litchfield County, Connecticut (1909):
Romeo Lowery, born in Farmington in 1793. graduated at Yale in 1818, studied at the Litchfield Law School and was admitted to this Bar in 1820. He settled in Southington and was a highly respected member of the Hartford County Bar and a Judge of the County Court. He died in 1856.
Lowery also invested in two local companies that would later became part of Southington’s two most successful firms, Plant Bros. Manufacturing Company and Peck, Stow & Wilcox. Lowery’s 1828 house is at 101 North Main Street in Southington. It remained in his family until 1964 and is today used as offices.
Captain Samuel Woodruff of Southington was a descendant of Samuel Woodruff, the town’s first colonial settler. As described in Heman Timlow’s Ecclesiastical and Other Sketches of Southington, Conn. (1875):
Capt. Samuel S. Woodbuff, son of Robert, b. Nov. 12, 1811; m. June 8, 1834, Emeline, daughter of Wooster Neal. He lives on the place owned by his father and grandfather. During the last war he was conspicuous for the promptness with which he entered the service, and the gallantry that he displayed during his entire military career. He led the Southington company through the period of their enlistment. In the town he is held in high repute as a man of the most incorruptible integrity. He is a carpenter by trade.
After the war, Capt. Woodruff ran a carriage business connected to his son Adna Neal Woodruff’s contracting business on Liberty Street. Capt. Woodruff and his wife both died in 1882. His house, built around 1840, is at 23 Old State Road in Southington. Starting in 1915, the Murawski family owned the property and built up a large farm which they operated into the late 1960s. The house is notable among Greek Revival houses in in Southington for its pyramidal roof, center chimney and rural location.
Happy Easter!!! The original meeting house of Durham’s Congregational church stood on the northeast corner of the town Green from 1736 to 1835. When it was decided to replace the old building, there was a struggle in town between those to the south, who wanted the new church to be built near the Green, and those to the north, who wanted it to be built north of Allyn Brook. It was eventually built near the Green, but those living south of Allyn Brook made a larger contribution to its construction. On Thanksgiving Day, 1844, the new building burned down (a suspected case of arson). Those on the north side now succeeded in having the new church built on their side of the brook while south siders paid nothing and were even compensated for their expense for the previous building. The new North Congregational Church was dedicated in June, 1847, but the dispute was not over: that same year 67 members left the church and formed a separate South Congregational Church. The two congregations united again in 1886 and the South Church became Durham’s Town Hall. In 1941 the Congregational and Methodist Churches joined to form the United Churches of Durham.
Travelers on Route 6 in Bolton pass by a Federal/Greek Revival-style house with a sign identifying it as “Patriot Farm.” Older surveys date the house, at 822 Hopriver Road, to c.1822, but a sign on the house says it was built by Jonathan Colton in 1788 (the sign is on a wing of the house, so perhaps this refers to the wing as an earlier section, with main block dating to the 1820s?). The property is currently for sale.
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