Coventry’s Second Congregational Church was organized in 1745, to serve the northern section of the town. The first meeting house was built around 1750 and was replaced by a new one in 1792. The current church building, located on the Boston Turnpike (Route 44), was built in 1847 by builder-architect Edwin Fitch of Storrs.
The first Congregational meetinghouse in Coventry was built on the green in 1715. In 1842, the congregation became divided over the issue of whether to build a new church or retain the original structure. One group built the current church building, known as the “Village Church,” on Main Street in 1849, while the other repaired the original building and turned it to face the green. The two churches coexisted separately until they were reunited in 1869, thenceforward using the 1849 building, now called First Church. The steeple was destroyed by lightning in 1903 and a replacement was soon constructed.
The Collins Company paid for the construction of the first Collinsville Congregational Church building in 1836. It was built as part of Collinsville, the village set up in South Canton by Samuel Collins for his workers. When the original church burned in 1857, the company again provided funds (added to the insurance settlement), as did Sam Collins and others in the village. The new Greek Revival-style Collinsville Congregational Church was completed in 1858.
Near the Alonzo Barber House, on Cherry Brook Road in Canton, is another Greek Revival-style home at #203. The exact date of construction is not known, although it appears on an 1869 map of Canton and one real estate website indicates a date of 1860, which would be quite late for a Greek Revival house. The long veranda is a later addition.
Alonzo Barber built a Greek Revival House at 193 Cherry Brook Road in Canton in 1843. He operated a general store in the rear of the house, which was continued after his death in 1853. Warren Humphrey, who purchased the home and business in 1862, eventually moved the store into a building across the road. The house is currently for sale.
The first meeting house in Simsbury was built in 1683. In 1736 there were lengthy debates over where to build a new and larger second meeting house, which was eventually constructed on Drake’s Hill. Construction commenced in 1740, but in 1743 services began in what was still an unfinished building, only completed in 1777. This was replaced by the current church, at the same location, in 1830. The minister at the time was Rev. Allen McLean, whose grandson, George Payne McLean was later a senator and governor of Connecticut. The First Church of Christ in Simsbury has undergone various restorations and several additions over the years.
The William Pendleton House, on Main Street in Stonington Borough, is a Greek Revival style house, which retains elements of the Federal style. It was built after 1831 (perhaps as late as 1840) for Pendleton, who was a merchant. The gable may have been added later. During Prohibition, the house’s basement was used as an illegal bar, or speakeasy, and the period decor and original bar have been preserved by later owners.