Plymouth Building, Milford (1952)

During the Great Awakening in 1741, the membership of the First Congregational Church in Milford was split, with the more conservative members forming Second Church, under the leadership of Job Prudden, the great grandson of Peter Prudden, the first pastor of First Church. A new Greek Revival structure, called Plymouth Church, was constructed for the second congregation. The two Congregational churches then continued separately, but physically close to each other, for 185 years, until 1926, when they were reunited. The old Plymouth Church was then used as a playhouse until it was razed in 1951 and replaced the following year by the Plymouth Building, which houses a chapel and parish hall.

Hermon Chapin House (1834)

On Main Street in New Hartford, across from Pine Meadow Green, is a Greek Revival home that once served as a parish house for St. John’s Episcopal Church. The earliest part of the house, in the rear, dates to 1784, but the front section was added in 1834, when Hermon Chapin, who established himself in Pine Meadow as a prominent tool manufacturer, moved in with his wife, Catharine Merrill. She later left the house to the Episcopal Church.

Mount Carmel Congregational Church (1840)

Mount Carmel Congregational Church is located on Whitney Avenue, in the Mount Carmel neighborhood of Hamden. The parish, established in 1758, had previously worshiped in a meetinghouse which stood a little north of the current church. That building was first used in 1761, but was not fully completed until after the Revolution. After it burned down, the present Greek Revival-style church was constructed in 1840, after several years of debate on where to build it.

Comstock-Bensen House (1842)

The Comstock-Bensen House is a Greek Revival home at the northwest corner of Main Street and Heritage Hill Road in New Canaan. It was built around 1842 by Edson Bradley on land he had purchased from Seymour Comstock. Bradley was a partner in the shoe-making company of Bradley and Benedict. Business was disrupted by the Civil War and in 1871 Bradley retired and sold his home to Albert Comstock, the brother of Seymour Comstock, who lived next door. Albert Comstock was partner in the clothing business of Comstock and Rogers. He and his wife also helped to found the New Canaan Historical Society, whose early meetings were held in the couple’s house. The house later passed through other owners, being acquired by the Bensen family in 1926.

Samuel Simpson House (1840)

Architect Henry Austin designed the home of Wallingford industrialist Samuel Simposon, which originally stood on North Main Street in Wallingford. In the mid-nineteenth century, Simpson, a silver manufacturer, partnered with Robert Wallace in the firm of R. Wallace & Company, the forerunner of Wallace Silversmiths. He was later president of Simpson, Hall & Miller. Simpson’s great-granddaughter, Margaret Tibbits Taber, later had a bookstore in the house. The home was later moved to its current location on Scard Road in Wallingford.