The Hopkins Inn, overlooking Lake Waramaug in Warren, was opened in 1847 as a summer boarding house by Deacon William Hopkins on the farm he had inherited from his father, Elijah Hopkins. His son and grandsons, including George C. Hopkins, continued to operate the boarding house. Closed during the Second World War, it was reopened in 1945 by William Hopkins’ great-grandson, George Hosford Hopkins, and continues in operation today as an inn, restaurant and vineyard.
At the time of its settlement, Bethlehem was the northern part of the Town of Woodbury. As related in the History of Ancient Woodbury (1854), by William Cothren,
Four years after the first settlement, the number of families amounted to only fourteen; yet this handful of people felt able to support a minister a part of the time, and accordingly petitioned the General Assembly at its October session, 1738, for liberty to have “winter privileges,” for five months,” in the most difficult season of the year, viz., November, December, January, February and March,” as they lived so far from church, it was impossible to attend. […] In May, 1739, they petitioned to be released from parish taxes as long as they should hire a minister, and from school taxes, on establishing a school of their own, “the school in the first society being so far off it was of no use to them.” The request was granted, and they were permitted to hire a “minister and set up a school.” At the October session of the same year, they petitioned that the “east half of the North Purchase” might be set off as a distinct ecclesiastical society.
The Society voted to build a meeting house in 1740 and, again quoting the History of Ancient Woodbury, “The clerk of the society in 1743, reported the house covered, and in May, 1744, that materials were provided for finishing the inside of the house.” This building was later replaced:
The first house in the society after a time was deemed too small for its accommodation. Accordingly on the 4th of January, 1764, when there were about one hundred within its limits that paid taxes, they voted to build a second church. On the 28th of the next month, they voted again to build the house, “and to begin and go on moderately and Little by Little.” […] By a vote of the society, October 20th, 1768, directing the society’s committee to “seat the new Meeting House,” “and dignify the Pues [sic]” therein, we learn when it was finished and ready for worship. In December, 1793, a tax of sixpence on the pound was laid to build a steeple, provided money enough to purchase a “good decent bell and a Lightning rod” for the same should be raised by subscription. Eighty pounds were soon subscribed, and the bell was obtained.
The current First Church of Bethlehem was built as the Society’s third successive meeting house in 1836. It is a Greek Revival, Doric tetrastyle, clapboard church.
The Arcade building, at 61-65 Water Street in Stonington, is a nineteenth-century Greek Revival commercial building, constructed in the wake of the fire of April 1837, which destroyed the commercial center of Stonington Borough. The building has contained numerous retail establishments over the years. In 1952, the building was given as a gift by Colonel Frederick Horner to the Stonington Historical Society. The Arcade was then converted into an office and apartments. A number of Stonington locations were used in the movie Mystic Pizza (1988), including the arcade, which was temporarily repainted from white to a buff color for the filming.
The United Church of Christ in Southbury was constructed in 1844 as the the meeting house of the First Ecclesiastical Society of Southbury. It was the Society’s third meeting house, as described in Vol. II of the 1892 History of New Haven County, Connecticut (edited by J. L. Rockey):
For more than half a century the settlers of Southbury worshipped in Woodbury church, and were tributary to the First Ecclesiastical Society of that town. In May, 1731, the Southbury parish was incorporated, and November 29th, 1732, this society voted to build a meeting house, and asked the assembly for a committee to locate a site. In May, 1733, the committee selected a final place, “setting the stake down on the hill between Lt. Andrew Hinman’s and the house that was Elnathan Strong’s.” This site was in the highway nearly in front of the present White Oak school house. The building was a plain frame, 35 by 45 feet, with 23 foot posts, and was not fully completed for 20 years.
[…] It was not many years before the first meeting house was too small to accommodate the congregation, and a new house was demanded. As in the first instance, the question of site proved troublesome, and it was several years before an agreement could be reached. Finally, after four years’ effort, a site was selected on Southbury street, south of the old site, on which was begun in 1764 one of the largest and finest meeting houses in this part of the state. It was twelve years before it was fully completed and was a noteworthy object many miles around, with its high spire, in which was a good bell and also a clock. These were purchased by general subscriptions of the citizens of the town, which were secured in December, 1773.
The meeting house stood at the head of the lane leading to the middle cemetery, which it fronted, and was used until the present house was occupied in 1844, when it was taken down and the material removed.
Attached to the rear of the church is the former Southbury Methodist Church building. Also in the Greek Revival style, it was built in 1847 and was moved and attached to the Congregational church in 1957.
As related by Albert Carlos Bates, in the introduction to his Records of the Congregational Church in Turkey Hills: now the Town of East Granby, Connecticut, 1776-1858 (1907):
The Congregational Church in Turkey Hills, now the town of East Granby, Connecticut, is said by tradition to have been organized in 1737, the year in which the society or parish in which it is located held its first meeting. The General Assembly in October of the previous year had passed an act which divided the town of Simsbury into four ecclesiastical societies, the section previously called the “northeast corner” being established as Turkey Hills. The same year another act of the Assembly enlarged the limits of the society, by adding to it on the east a section of the town of Windsor, having a length of about four miles and known from its width as “the half mile”. In 1786, by division of the town of Simsbury, the section of Turkey Hills which had been in that town became a part of the town of Granby; and in 1854, by the same method, the section which had been in Windsor became a part of the town of Windsor Locks. On June 2, 1858, the town of East Granby was incorporated [from portions of Granby and Windsor Locks] with practically the same boundaries as the society of Turkey Hills.
The Society’s first meetinghouse was completed in 1744. The current East Granby Congregational Church is a masonry building of ashlar granite, built in 1830 by Connecticut Valley master builder, Isaac Damon, of Northampton, Massachusetts.
At 170 East Main Street in Clinton is a brick Greek Revival house, built around 1848. The earliest surviving deed to the house dates to October 1850, when it was transferred from Samuel R. Dibbell to Charles Dibbell. The plot where the Dibbell House sits, at the corner of Boston Post Road and Old Clinton Road (Route 145), is known as Dibbell’s Corner and the house is still in the Dibbell family. The house has a full, two-story Greek portico with freestanding Ionic columns, which were originally made by hand in a barn then on the property. The house’s corner location makes it vulnerable to damage from vehicle crashes. Twenty years ago, a motorcycle crash which killed the driver destroyed the two left columns. Preservationist Jeffrey Bradley crafted exact replacements. Last year, another crash just missed the right column and damaged brickwork on the house. The column survived, but rot was discovered. Bradley’s services were again called upon to repair the damaged column.
When the first settlers came to Southbury from Stratford in 1673, they spent their first night under a white oak tree on Crook Horn Road, in what is now Settlers Park. That section of Southbury became known as White Oak and at 886 Main Street North is the old White Oak School House, built around 1840. More recently used as an antiques shop, the Greek Revival school house is part of a property, currently on the market, which includes the adjacent 1715 Croucher-Richmond House.
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