Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Greek Revival

Custom House, New London (1833)

The United States Custom House, on Bank Street in New London, was built in 1833 and was designed by Robert Mills, architect of the Washington Monument in Washington, DC. The wood doors are made from planks from the USS Constitution. When the Amistad was brought to New London in 1839, the ship was moored near the Custom House and when it was sold, in 1840, its cargo was auctioned off in the building. The New London Maritime Society was formed in 1983 to save the Greek Revival-style building. It established the New London Custom House Maritime Museum in what continues to be the oldest continuously-operating custom house in the country.

Erastus Kelsey House (1825)

The Erastus Kelsey House, on Main Street in Portland, was built in 1925. Born in Killingworth in 1792, Kelsey married Betsey Deane around 1814. She was the daughter of Phineas Dean, a tavern keeper who also lived on Main Street. Another daughter of Phineas Deane, Harriet, married William McKinstry, a wealthy Middletown merchant.

The Stone House, Deep River (1840)

The Stone House in Deep River (which was known as Saybrook until 1947) was built in 1840 by Deacon Ezra Southworth for he and his new wife, Eunice Post Southworth. The house was built using stone quarried on the property. The original flat tin roof was later replaced by a gabled roof. A rear addition was constructed in 1881, just before the marriage of the Southworth’s son, Ezra Job Birney Southworth, to Fanny Shortland of Chester. The wraparound porch was added to the house in 1898. Deacon Ezra’s granddaughter, Ada Southworth Munson, who died in 1946, bequeathed the property to the Deep River Historical Society. It is now a house museum open to the public. On the property, there is also a late nineteenth century barn (now called the carriage house) and a section from an old bleach house, owned by Pratt, Read & Co., which was used for whitening ivory. At one time, Pratt Read in Deep River and Comstock, Cheney & Co. in Ivoryton, dominated the ivory products manufacturing industry in the U.S.

First Baptist Church, Meriden (1847)

Since 1739, Baptists in Meriden had attended services in Wallingford. A seperate society in Meriden was founded in 1786 and in 1801 a dwelling house was purchased near the Meriden-Wallingford border to be used for worship by the societies of both towns. In 1815, the Meriden Baptists erected their own meeting house, near the later location of their parsonage, which was also open for the Methodists to use. This building was moved across the street and enlarged in 1831. By 1846, the Baptists required a new building but found the Congregationalists unwilling to sell the church they were planning to vacate on Broad Street (as it turned out, a group of Congregationalists continued to use the church, which is now called Center Congregational Church). Instead, the Baptists purchased the vacant lot adjoining the Congregational church and built the current First Baptist Church in 1847-1848.

In building their church next to the Congregational church, the Baptists encountered resistance from “Standing Order.” According to An Historic Record and Pictorial Description of the Town of Meriden (1907), “The work of building the new church met with a remonstrance from the neighboring church who caused an injunction to be placed on the progress of the work, the reason given for the same when the question was decided in court was as follows: “No objection to the Baptists as Christian people, as good neighbors and worthy citizens,” but Rev. Mr. Miller had a peculiarly sharp, ringing voice, that the Congregationalists claimed would disturb their society in worship. As may be readily supposed the injunction was removed and the present house of worship erected.”

The Ira H. Palmer House (1847)

Built in 1847 (some sources indicate 1861), the Ira H. Palmer House, at the corner of High and Main Streets in Stonington Borough, is transitional in style between the Greek Revival and Italianate. It was built by John F. Trumbull, who owned a factory in town, for his daughter, Harriet, who married Ira Hart Palmer.

Levi Smith House (1853)

Rev. Levi Smith of New Milford was the minister of the First Church in South Windsor from 1840 to 1849, the period during which the current church building was constructed. At that time he lived in a house on Old Main Street in East Windsor Hill which is no longer standing. In 1853, he moved into a Greek Revival house down the street which he intended to be his retirement home, but died nine months later (in 1854). Rev. Smith was a supporter of the Theological Seminary, located at that time near his home and later moved to Hartford. He founded two annual scholarships and left his library to the Seminary.

Center Congregational Church, Meriden (1830)

The first Congregational church to be built in Meriden was erected in 1727 in the south-eastern section of town. This was succeeded by a new building in 1755, in the center of town. This was then replaced by a new church, erected in 1830 nearby, at the corner of Broad and East Main Streets. This is the oldest surviving church building in Meriden. It was originally the home of the First Congregational Church, but the church split in 1848. With the center of population in the town moving westward, three-quarters of the congregation left to form a new First Congregational Church, while the remainder continued at the old location, which was renamed Center Congregational Church. (more…)