Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Italianate

Armstrong-McDonald House (1860)

At 27 Leavenworth Street in Waterbury is a house built in the early 1860s and much altered over the years. Known as the Armstrong/McDonald House, it has an Italianate form, but the exterior details are Georgian Revival. In about 1897, the house became the headquarters of the Young Women’s Friendly League (called the Waterbury Institute of Craft and Industry after 1908), which aided young working women. The organization began in 1889 and was incorporated in 1893. A large brick Georgian Revival building (31 Leavenworth Street) was constructed in 1900 as a rear addition to the house. This was the Young Women’s Friendly League Assembly Hall, also known as Leavenworth Hall.

Spencer Annenberg Block (1897)

The building pictured above is the Spencer Annenberg Block, built in 1897 at 630-636 Main Street in Middletown. (more…)

William W. White House (1853)

The William W. White House is an Italianate-style residence with a cupola, built in 1853 at 239 Bradley Street in New Haven. It has a later Colonial Revival front entry and an uncomplementary side addition.

Luther House (1870)

At 27 High Street in New Haven is a bow front residence that was originally a double house. Built around 1870, it is now Luther House at Yale, which provides a place of spiritual retreat for students.

Charles C. Hubbard House (1861)

The Charles C. Hubbard House, at 148 Broad Street in Middletown is an Italianate-style house built around 1861. It was the home of Charles C. Hubbard, who owned a hardware store on Main Street that sold products manufactured by Hubbard on Warwick Street. In 1873, Thomas W. Coit bought the house. He was a professor of ecclesiastical history at the Berkeley Divinity School. The school was established in Middletown in 1854 and moved to New Haven in 1928.

Henry Cornwell House (1860)

Located in the village of Westfield in Middletown, the house at 125 Miner Street is an Italianate villa-style residence. It was built in 1860 by Henry Cornwell. Acquired by Edgar Burns in 1888, it remained in his family until 1952.

C. H. Dexter & Sons (1876)

Located along the canal on South Main Street in Windsor Locks, is the former factory complex of C. H. Dexter & Sons, paper manufacturers. A brief history of the company appeared in The American Stationer of July 25, 1914 (Vol. LXXVI, No. 4) as follows:

The Dexter paper mill is one of the oldest landmarks of Windsor Locks, the business dating back nearly eighty years. From a grist mill, built by ancestors of the present owners over one hundred years ago, there developed the manufacture of paper that has grown to large proportions. The old mill was operated by Seth Dexter, 1st, and later by his son of the same name. When the latter died, his son, Charles H. Dexter, took possession of the mill, and in 1835 Mr. Dexter began making paper out of manila rope in the basement of the old grist mill. In 1840 a mill for the exclusive purpose of manufacturing paper was erected on the opposite side of the canal. The nucleus of the present plant was built in 1876, after the original mill had been destroyed by fire.

Charles H. Dexter died in 1869 and was succeeded by Edwin D. Dexter and Herbert R. Coffin. In 1886 Mr. Dexter died and the business passed into the hands of Mr. Coffin, who continued it under the old name. He increased the size of the plant and began the making of high-grade specialties and tissues. On the death of Mr. Coffin in 1901, his sons, Arthur D. and Herbert R., continued the business, maintaining the plant under the old name, C. H. Dexter & Sons.

The Dexter Corporation (as the company was known after 1966) was dismantled in 2000. The company’s nonwovens production facilities in Windsor Locks were sold to the Finish company, Ahlstrom Paper Group. (more…)