In 1806, Episcopalians in Nayaug (South Glastonbury) established an Episcopal Society and built a church in 1812-13. The church was officially consecrated as St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in 1821 and served as a church until a new church was consecrated in 1838. The old church was sold and became a school. It was moved further down Main Street in 1860 and was torn down in 1933. The 1838 church is still in use, with few modern modifications to the original structure.
The Clark-Nichols House is a Greek-Revival style half-house at 758 Monroe Turnpike in Monroe. It was built in the 1830s. A rear wing, since removed, once served as a school.
The Old Town Hall of Enfield was originally built in 1775 as the Enfield Congregational Church’s third meeting house. By 1848, the building had become overcrowded and the current church was built the following year. With funds from businessman businessman, Orrin Thompson, the old meeting house was converted into the town hall. The building was altered with the removal of the steeple and the addition of a Greek Revival-style front portico. A new town hall was built in 1892 and the old building was neglected until 1923, when it became a community house. The building was later threatened with demolition, but between 1972 and 1980 it was restored by the Enfield Historical Society and then opened as the Old Town Hall Museum.
The Cooley School is a one-room schoolhouse built around 1870. It was originally located on the corner of East Street and Cooley Road in North Granby. At that time, the school’s outhouse was just across the state line in Southwick, Massachusetts. The school was closed in 1948 and the furniture was auctioned off. In 1972, the school was given to the Salmon Brook Historical Society by Merrill Clark, whose mother had once taught at the school. Since 1980, the school, now a museum, has been been located with the Historical Society’s other buildings on Salmon Brook Street.
The Greek Revival-style house at 63 Park Street in New Canaan was constructed by local builder Hiram Crissey in 1836. The most famous resident of the house was Maxwell E. Perkins, the legendary editor of such writers as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and Thomas Wolfe. Perkins bought the house, which is half a block from New Canaan Metro-North Station, in 1924 and lived there until his death in 1947. His widow Louise lived in the house until her death in 1965: she had fallen asleep smoking in bed and started a fire which gutted part of the building. It was then subdivided into apartments by the Perkins’ daughter. In 1973, the house was acquired by Richard and Sandra Bergmann, who restored it over seven years. Richard Bergmann is an architect whose firm is based in the house.
The Brick Academy in Torrington is an old school building, constructed around 1835. It was probably moved at some point to its current location on George Street, if it is the same Brick Academy as described in the History of Torrington (1878), by Rev. Samuel Orcutt. According to that book, the Brick Academy, “a three story building in Wolcottville south of the bridge on Main street, was built as a Union meeting house and academy, and was used for both purposes quite a number of years. It has been occupied as a manufactory, a store, and a Masonic Hall.” Today the building is a private home.
In 1845, members of the First Congregational Church of Plainfield who resided in the town’s Central Village formed a separate North Plainfield Ecclesiastical Society. They built the Central Village Congregational Church in 1846 on Main Street. In 1927, renovations were made to make room for an organ. The church‘s original steeple was lost in the 1938 hurricane and quickly replaced by the current one.
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