The house at 25 Prospect Street in New London is a notable early example of the work of Lewis Crandall, a carpenter and builder. Built in 1838-1839, the Greek Revival house has a French Second Empire tower, added later.
The town of Scotland began as a parish within the town of Windham in 1732, incorporating as a separate town in 1857. As described in the 1889 History of Windham County:
The new society met to organize June 22d, 1732, at the house of Nathaniel Huntington. […] After settling some disputes as to the law in regard to electing officers, the society unanimously set to work to locate and build a meeting house. The site decided upon was ” a knoll, east side of Merrick’s brook, south side of the road from Windham to Canterbury.” Nathaniel Huntington, who owned the land, promptly made over a quarter of an acre for that purpose. June 25th, 1733, it was voted to build a house 43 by 33 feet and twenty feet high, the roof and sides to be, covered with chestnut sawed shingles and clapboards. The work went bravely forward and by November 20th a society meeting was held in the house. Then the windows were glazed, and rough board seats provided, as well as a ” conveniency for a minister to stand by to preach.” […]
[In 1772], it was voted to build a new meeting house, the vote calling out 98 “yeas” and 20 “nays.” It was agreed to give Mr. Elisha Lillie £750 for building the house. It was several years in course of construction. It was completed enough to be seated in December, 1778, and in the following May the work was formally accepted from the hands of Mr. Lillie, the contractor. The old building then being offered for sale at auction, brought seventeen pounds.
The third and current meeting house on the Scotland Green was built in 1842 and, again quoting from the History of Windham County, “A neat and convenient chapel was purchased and fitted up adjoining the church in 1867.” The Chapel had been built in 1842 and had been the Town Hall. (more…)
The building which today serves as the Grange Hall in Coventry was built in 1834 by the Second Congregational Church of Coventry. Called the academy building, it was used as a chapel and a select school until it was sold to the Coventry Grange No. 75 in 1889. Formed in 1888, the Coventry Grange has used the building since 1890, making it the oldest continually used Grange Hall in the State of Connecticut. (more…)
The First Congregational Church of Barkhamsted, also known as Barkhamsted Center Church, was gathered in 1781. The first meetinghouse was built in 1784 and was used until the current, second meeting house was built in 1844-1845. As written in Barkhamsted, Conn., and Its Centennial, 1879:
the old Meeting House was raised in 1784, and used for religious purposes until about 1843 or 1844, and also for town purposes. It was used but little, if any, after the new house was built, and being neglected, of course, rapidly fell into decay. After some changes in ownership, it eventually came into the possession of George Merrill and his sons, Charles and Sheldon, and was f1nally sold to the Greenwoods Company of New Hartford, and by them taken down in 1865, and part of it used in the buildings at the west end of the Greenwoods Company’s dam, near the Scythe Shop. The large stone steps at the east door were used by Bela Tiffany; those at the south door by Charles Merrill; those at the west door by Sheldon Merrill, as steps for their residences respectively.
The second meeting house’s belfry tower was removed in the 1920s, but was recently rebuilt.
In 1830, Officers’ Quarters and Barracks for enlisted men were constructed of stone at Fort Trumbull in New London. A wooden extension to the building, erected in the 1840s, was replaced by a new stone section in 2000. From 1910, Fort Trumbull was used as the training school of the Revenue Cutter Service and then as the U.S. Coast Guard Academy (the Coast Guard was formed in 1915 with the merger of the Life Saving Service and Revenue Cutter Service). The barracks accommodated two cadets to a room and was later converted into the Academy’s library. After the Coast Guard Academy moved in 1932, the building was used primarily as offices.
Charles Phelps Williams (1804-1879) was a wealthy shipowner and businessman in Stonington. A ship master by 1825, he was soon involved in seal fishery and, when the sealing industry declined, he turned to whaling. According to Hurd’s History of New London County (1882), Charles P. Williams
was one of the largest individual ship-owners engaged in that important pursuit. With its decadence he withdrew from active commercial life, and was one of the first corporators under the State laws of the Ocean Bank of Stonington, of which he was elected president, and whose immediate and continued prosperity was largely due to his admirable management. In 1856 he went to Europe with his family, and resigned the presidency, but on his return he was elected first director, a position which he retained in the reorganization of the bank as the First National.
Mr. Williams took an active part in the building of the Providence and Stonington Railroad, and was for many years president of that corporation.
His keen business foresight had at an early period in the development of the West convinced him of its importance and future greatness, and he became largely interested there. The management of his accumulating property occupied the later years of his life, and he withdrew entirely from active business. I In 1878 the severe strain of a life of intense mental activity culminated in failing health, and on Oct. 28, 1879, he died of a rupture of a blood-vessel in the brain. […]
One of the most marked features of his personal character was the thorough simplicity of his life. He never sought office of any kind. A man of distinguished and commanding presence, of most courteous and polished manners, he was averse to all ostentation and avoided public life. His integrity was spotless, and in the management of all the vast interests which he controlled, with the innumerable attendant possibilities of error, his reputation stood always above reproach. A man of generous impulse, his charities were as unostentatious as his life, and in his death the poor lost a true and a liberal friend, and the State an upright and valued citizen.
In 1840, his homestead on Water Street was moved to 39 Main Street, where it was remodeled in the Greek Revival style and enlarged with two side wings.
The brick Greek Revival style house at 105 North Washington Street in Plainville was built about 1853 by George W. Eaton. Starting out as a farmer, Eaton purchased the gristmill of Hiram Hills, eventually developing it into a commercial grain and feed mill in the 1870s. The business was continued by his sons under the name Eaton Brothers. The house has had a porch since the later nineteenth century.
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