Built sometime between 1830 and 1840, the William Niles House, at 184 South Main Street in Colchester, is an example of Greek Revival architecture, but now has modern asbestos siding. Niles’ widow lived in the house after his death.
Built around 1850, Canterbury‘s Center District School, on Canterbury Green, was a one-room schoolhouse, in use until 1947, although some kindergarten classes were held there in the 1950s. The building, also known as the Green Schoolhouse, was later used as the town’s library and, since 2002, has been restored by volunteers and furnished as an early 20th century district school.
Built around 1830 and thought to have served as offices and perhaps a warehouse for the Farmington Canal, the nineteenth-century commercial building at 12 West Main Street in Avon, adjacent to the Congregational Church, has since been a feed store, school, residence and, from 1947 to 1967, a post office. This former Farmington Canal Administration building continues today to house various businesses and living space.
The Church in Wapping, a section of South Windsor, was built in 1801 and initially served several denominations. The Baptists and Methodists later founded their own churches, so that by 1817, only the Congregationalists remained. They eventually organized as the Second Congregational Church in South Windsor in 1830. The Congregationalists later merged with the Methodists to found the Wapping Federated Church, which became the Wapping Community Church in 1936. The original appearance of the church is not known. It was altered to its current Greek Revival style in 1849.
According to Vol. 2 of The Memorial History of Hartford County (1886):
The Rev. William H. Turkington, who occupied the pulpit of the Methodist Church at Windsorville [now Windsorville United Methodist Church] in 1882, has kindly furnished the following brief record of its history : —
“The following sketch concerning the church in this place is taken from the minutes of the Methodist Episcopal Conference. The church was built in 1829 [at Thrall and Clark roads, moved to Windsorville Road in 1858]; the name of East Windsor first appears in 1829 ; the name of Ketch Mills in 1839; the name of Windsorville, in 1850. In 1876 the church was destroyed by fire. In 1878 [1877, according to the Souvenir History of the New England Southern Conference (1897)] the present church edifice was dedicated.”
A complete list of the men who in rotation have filled the pulpit of this church since its foundation in 1829 includes more than forty names. The present pastor [1886] is the Rev. H. M. Cole.
On Main Street in Stonington is a granite Greek Revival building that served as a custom house. Built around 1827, it originally served as a bank. The Stonington Bank was chartered in 1822 and operated until the end of the Civil War. Stonington had some direct trade with the West Indies and was made a Port of Entry in 1842. It was probably around this time the building began to be used as a custom house.
Located on an elevated lot, at the intersection of Madison and Higganum Roads in Durham, is the William Wadsworth House, built in 1848. Wadsworth was a farmer and a descendant of Col. James Wadsworth, one of the town’s most prominent citizens. William Wadsworth, who also served as town clerk and Justice of the Peace, sold the property to Angeline L. Scranton, although he continued to live in the house until his death in 1870. Scranton married Orrin Camp, of Oquawka, Illinois, in 1873 and sold the house before moving west. The fine Greek Revival-style house has been vacant and in a deteriorating condition for many years.
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