The Rev. Joseph Whiting House (1835)

Adjacent to northeast of the First Congregational Church of Cheshire is a house built around 1835 (1831-1836) for Rev. Joseph Whiting, who served as the first minister in that church building, from 1827 to 1836. The house was owned by a number of ministers over the years. Arthur Sherriff, headmaster of Cheshire Academy from 1923 to 1966, was a later resident of the house, which was sold to the Congregational Church in 1969. The Greek Revival-style house has a later Colonial Revival porch.

Officers’ Quarters at Fort Trumbull (1830)

Known as Stone Row, the Officers’ Quarters at Fort Trumbull in New London were built around 1830 and housed military officers for over a century and a half. Until 1910, army officers occupied quarters in the building, followed by officers of the Revenue Cutter Service, the Coast Guard and finally the Navy, who converted it to offices in 1995. The building once had small wood dormer windows, but the Coast Guard replaced these with full-length shed dormers along both sides of the building. In 2000, the structure was adapted to serve as the Visitors’ Center for Fort Trumbull State Park.

Shetucket Grange Hall (1840)

The Shetucket Grange Hall in Scotland was built around 1840 as the Union Church. The building was moved from Pudding Hill to the center of town in 1900 to become a Grange Hall. As described in Vol. I of the History of Windham County, Connecticut (1889), by Richard M. Bayles,

[In Scotland,] The principal attention of the people is directed toward agriculture, and some improvement may be seen in that direction in recent years. Among such improvements may be noticed the organization of a Grange. Shetucket Grange, as it is named, was organized with twenty-four charter members, June 10th, 1887. The ceremonies of organization and installation of officers, which took place on the same evening, were conducted by D. M. Master Tucker of Lebanon, assisted by D. K. Bowen of Woodstock and members of Little River Grange of Hampton.

Windham Free Library (1832)

Windham Free Library, on the Green in Windham Center, was originally built, on the former site of the county court house, as the Windham Bank in 1832. The bank moved its operations to Willimantic in 1879 and other commercial establishments soon followed, as Windham Center changed from being a business district into a primarily residential area. The Greek Revival building then stood vacant until it was converted into a museum, displaying a temporary “Exhibition of Relics,” on the occasion of Windham’s bi-centennial, celebrated in 1892. Now it serves as Connecticut’s smallest freestanding library. Established in 1897, the Library displays historical artifacts, including the Windham Bacchus, carved out of wood by British prisoners of war, one of whom was a ship’s carpenter, who were being held in the Windham jail in 1776. They carved the Figure of Bacchus as a parting gift, at the time of their escape, for their widowed landlady, who was also a tavern keeper.

Montville Center Congregational Church (1847)

In 1722, the North Parish of New London, later to become the Town of Montville, was established and a meeting house for the congregation was soon built near the center of the parish. In 1772, a new meeting house was constructed at a new location, at the corner of Raymond Hill Road and Meetinghouse Lane. As described in the History of Montville (1896), compiled by Henry A. Baker:

On the 25th day of May, 1823, while the congregation was engaged in worship on the Sabbath, the house was struck by lightning, the fluid entering by the spire on the north porch and following down the posts of the porch and running along the timbers of the house in all directions, shivering timbers and casements, scattering splinters and broken fragments of ceilings throughout the entire building. Two persons were instantly killed, Mrs. Betsey Bradford, wife of Perez Bradford, and a child of John R. Comstock. Many were shocked and a general consternation seized the awe-stricken assembly.

The building being very much damaged, it was soon after repaired, the upper portion of the north porch was taken off and was finished up at the same height with the south porch. This house stood until the year 1847, when it was taken down and the present house of worship erected on the site, at a cost of $2,000. Sherwood Raymond, Esq., gave $500 toward the building of the house, and the balance was made up by subscriptions varying from $200 to $25. Its size is fifty feet in length and thirty-five feet in width, with twenty-feet posts. In the year 1860 the bell was placed in the belfry, it being obtained through the efforts of Rev. Hiram C. Hayan, then acting pastor of the church.

By the 1990s, the congregation had moved to a new church building and sought to sell the old 1847 Montville Center Congregational Church, but it was found that the church‘s deed restricted its sale to a private property owner. The Town of Montville has now sought to purchase the church to turn it into a museum or community center.