Fenner-Matthewson Mansion (1855)

The Fenner-Matthewson Mansion, in Plainfield‘s Central Village (pdf), has been described as one of the most outstanding Italian Villa-style houses in Connecticut. It was built around 1855 by Arnold Fenner at 40 Main Street, on what became known as Central Village’s “Manufacturers’ Row.” Born in Rhode Island, Fenner settled in Central Village about 1825 and in 1827 he purchased a major interest in the Central Manufacturing Company‘s cotton-spinning mill. Fenner and Allen Harris, a pioneering manufacturer in Central Village, constructed a second brick upper mill in 1828. Harris sold his interest in the company to Fenner in 1840. Fenner later replaced the company’s original lower mill with a brick one in 1845. After his death in 1871, Fenner’s daughter, Helen Walcott Fenner, lived in the house with her husband, Philip Matthewson, who was proprietor of a general store, which he sold in 1872 to live in retirement.

William Wallace Block (1857)

The name William Wallace conjures up images of the movie Braveheart. Wallingford also had a William Wallace, and a building downtown is named for him. Not the Scottish patriot who fought Edward I of England, Wallingford’s Wallace was a real estate developer, possibly related to the Wallcaces who started the Wallace Silver Company. In the second half of the nineteenth century, North Main Street north of Center Street was being developed as a commercial center. The William Wallace Block, at 33 North Main Street, was one of the first of the new commercial buildings to be constructed there in 1857. The Italianate structure is impressively large for its early date. It has high stoops and a high first floor allowing basement shop windows, a feature typically found in more urban areas at the time. It remains the largest commercial structure in the Wallingford Center Historic District today.

235-257 Asylum Street, Hartford (1872)

The series of buildings at 235-257 Asylum Street in Hartford are valuable nineteenth century survivors, examples of a period when cast iron was popular as a decorative element on commercial buildings in the city. New York has its famous Cast Iron District in SoHo, but Hartford has a few examples of cast iron ornamentation from the same period, most notably the cast iron front added to the building at 105 Asylum Street in 1896. The three buildings at nos. 235-257 Asylum Street were built between 1870 and 1872 by John Harrison. As reported in the Courant on June 13, 1871:

John Harrison and his associates, who purchased a portion of the Shepherd property on Asylum street, will erect at the head of Ann street a five-story iron building, which will be the second iron front in that street when the improvements now going on are completed.

To the left, in the image above, is 235-237 Asylum, completed in 1871. The original cast iron front on the first two floors was later replaced, but has been retained on the upper three floors. The adjacent middle building, 241 Asylum, is a narrower structure, having three instead of four bays. The largest of the buildings, 247-257 Asylum on the right, dating to 1872, was constructed of brick. Its windows have cast iron architraves and the building is topped by a bold cornice featuring semicircular arches, a feature also used on the later McKone Block on Main Street, built in 1875. There are more pictures after the jump…

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The Hemlocks (1847)

In 1847, Deacon Edward Lucas Hart built a house called “The Hemlocks” at 45 High Street in Farmington. He was the nephew of Deacon Simeon Hart, who ran the Hart School for boys in his home in Farmington. As explained in Farmington, the Village of Beautiful Homes (1906), Deacon Edward Lucas Hart

was born in East Haven, December 31, 1813, and died in this town May 15, 1876. He graduated at Yale College in 1836, and after teaching in New Haven and Berlin became associate principal in his uncle’s school in this village. He was a successful and inspiring teacher, much beloved by all who were favored by his friendship. He was for many years a director in the Farmington Savings Bank.

Further, as related in Alfred Andrews’s Genealogical History of Deacon Stephen Hart and His Descendants (1875):

He married April 26th, 1837, Nancy Champion Hooker, daughter of William G., of New Haven. […] He has a fine residence in Farmington, with a school-house on the premises, where he still continues a school for boys, especially in the winter season. Mr. Hart was chosen deacon of the Farmington Church in 1854.

In 1892, the Hemlocks was acquired by Amasa A. Redfield, a New York City lawyer who used the house as a weekend, summer and retirement home. When he died, the New York Times of October 20, 1902 stated that “Mr. Redfield was one of New York’s most prominent lawyers, and was also well known as a writer on legal subjects.” The house was then owned by his son, Robert Latimer Redfield, from 1902 to 1925.