William Sears House (1860)

10 Academy Street, New Haven

The 1825 house of Bethel Tuttle, at 10 Academy Street in New Haven, was later expanded around 1860 into an Italianate-style house by William H. Sears, who worked at E. Arnold & Co. According to the History of the City of New Haven to the Present Time (1887):

The firm of E. Arnold & Co., 236 to 240 State street, dealers in stoves, furnaces, ranges, and galvanized cornices, was formed in 1846, and has been located on the same street ever since. They are also engaged in tin-roofing, plumbing, and gas-fitting. The individual members of the firm are E. and George J. Arnold.

Florence Mill, Rockville (1864)

Florence Mill

The Florence Mill stands on the site of an earlier mill at 121 West Main Street in Vernon’s industrial village of Rockville. The original mill was built in 1831 by Colonel Francis McLean, in partnership with Alonzo Bailey. Framing from the old Vernon meeting house was used in its construction. Called the Frank Mill, it produced cassimere (cashmere). It was replaced by a new mill building in 1847, but this burned down in 1853 and the company collapsed. Nathaniel O. Kellogg purchased the factory’s remains and started a new company. He built the Florence Mill in 1864, Rockville‘s first example of slow-burn construction: brick masonry exterior walls with wood timber frames. The mill closed in 1869 and continued as a woolen mill under other owners until White, Corbin & Company converted it for the manufacture of envelopes in 1881. In that year, it was described as the largest brick building in Rockville. The company later consolidated with others to form the U.S. Envelope Company in 1898. The factory closed in the 1970s and was converted to become senior housing.

Hartford Office Supply Company (1890)

Hartford Office Supply Company Building

One of several old factory buildings that survive on Capitol Avenue in Hartford is located at 376-400 Capitol Avenue, at the corner of Flower Street. The building was originally constructed around 1890 as part of the Pratt & Whitney Machine Tool Company, which already had factories across the Park River. The new building was part of the company’s Small Tool Division, which had its address at 285 Flower Street. The structure went through many alterations of the years and additions were made in 1899, 1902 (by Wilson & Bros. of Philadelphia) and 1916 (by Harris & Richards of Philadelphia). The building was later home to the Hartford Office Supply Company and is still known by that name. Plans in recent years to redevelop the vacant property for condominiums have not worked out and the building has been in foreclosure.

Gridley-Munson House (1849)

Gridley-Munson House

Having built a store north of the Congregational Church in Watertown in 1846, Amos Gridley built his Italianate-style house next door (10 Deforest Street) in 1849. Gridley eventually went bankrupt. The house had other owners. In 1912, James Woolson remodeled it in the colonial revival style, adding the porches on the side of the house (the front portico is original). The house was later owned by William J. Munson, who donated the house and land to the town in 1928 in memory of his wife. The house now contains the Board of Education offices and the land, known as the Marion B. Munson Memorial Park, is joined to the Watertown Public Green.

Holmes Morse House (1874)

Holmes Morse House

A Victorian Italianate home among the many colonial and colonial revival houses of Litchfield is the Holmes Morse House at 135 South Street. The house was built in 1874 and in 1920 was listed as the home of Betsy F. Morse (possibly the widow of Holmes Morse?) I don’t know the relationship of Holmes Morse and Holmes O. Morse, who was on the Board of Directors of the Shepaug Railroad Company, became Commissioner of the Superior Court from Litchfield in 1884 and died in 1898.

New Britain Seminary (1869)

10 Camp Street, New Britain

David Nelson Camp (1820-1916) was an educator and author who served as mayor of New Britain for two years and wrote a History of New Britain, published in 1889. He lived at 9 Camp Street, on land that had formerly been part of the Camp Farm (no known relation). In 1869 Camp constructed a building across the street, at 10 Camp Street, to serve as the New Britain Seminary (pdf). As he describes it in his history of the city:

In 1869, in response to a written request signed by a number of leading citizens, including several members of the Board of School Visitors, steps were taken for the establishment of the New Britain Seminary. A building was erected at the north end of Camp Street, designed primarily as a school for young ladies. Before it was opened, however, the applications from the parents of boys were so numerous that arrangements were also made for a boys’ department. The school was opened in April, 1870, under the charge of David N. Camp, principal, and Ellen R. Camp and Anna I. Smith, assistants. A primary department was added in the autumn, and for many years the school, kept as a boarding and day school, was full, having pupils from surrounding towns and from other States and countries, as well as from New Britain. Mr. Camp retired from the school in the autumn of 1881, and was succeeded by Lincoln A. Rogers, A.M. The seminary was continued under the charge of Mr. Rogers until the close of the summer term in 1885. In the autumn the building was occupied by departments of the model and practice schools connected with the State Normal School, and these schools have been continued in it.

Camp also mentions the Seminary in his memoir, David Nelson Camp: Recollections of a Long and Active Life (1917):

A written request signed by a number of the leading citizens of New Britain and followed by oral communications induced me to found the New Britain Seminary. Here my daughter Ellen and I taught for several years, but my health failing, I was eventually obliged to relinquish teaching. The school was continued for some years by Mr. Lincoln A. Rogers and my daughter. The plan at first contemplated only a school for young ladies, but the urgent request of parents and citizens led to modification of the arrangement of the building, and a department was opened for boys. The school was continued with marked success for several years, but the development of the model classes connected with the Normal School made it less important that this school should be continued, and it was closed. The rooms were used by the State for classes of the Model School until the annex built for them was completed and ready for occupancy.