Canaan Union Station (1872)

The Housatonic Railroad was established in 1836 as a route between Bridgeport and Great Barrington, Massachusetts. A right-of-way for the railroad passed through what is now the Town of North Canaan, where Canaan village would develop around the new railroad station. That original station was in the Warner-Canfield Hotel building, which stood on the east side of the tracks and fronted on Main Street. In 1872, a new Italianate-style train station was erected on the south side of the tracks. Called Canaan Union Depot, it was built as a collaboration of the Housatonic Railroad and a new east-west line, the Connecticut Western Railroad (later acquired by the Central New England Railroad), which intersected the Housatonic line in the center of the village. Both rail lines would eventually come under the control of the New York New Haven & Hartford Railroad. The depot had a large restaurant on the first floor, an important feature in the era before dining cars. Rail service ended in the early 1970s, and the station became a retail center, which included a railway-themed restaurant. Rail service (for freight and excursions, but not regular passenger service, yet) resumed after a new Housatonic Railroad was chartered in 1983. The southeast half of the building, including the original tower, was destroyed by arson on October 12, 2001. The Connecticut Railroad Historical Association purchased the structure in 2003 and began a rebuilding of the historic station, which was dedicated in 2018.

Camp-Wilcox House (1874)

Samuel T. Camp, a Middletown Grocer and banker, resided in a house he erected in 1865 at 180 College Street. In 1874, he erected a rental house on the adjacent lot at 11 Pearl Street. Its first tenant, from 1875 to 1890, was Caleb T. Winchester (1847-1920), an 1869 graduate of Wesleyan who became the college’s librarian (1869-1873) and then a professor of English Literature (1873-1920). In 1890 moved into a new house at 284 High Street. In 1906, the house at 11 Pearl Street was acquired by Edgar J. Wilcox and became his residence. Wilcox was president of the Connecticut Business College, which had locations in the Y.M.C.A. building in Middletown and in Hartford. The house remained in his family until 1943. A brick structure, the house is designed in a variety of the Italianate style sometimes referred to as a bracketed cottage. There is a nearly identical house at 154 Church Street that was most likely the work of the same builder.

Willimantic Linen Company, Mill No. 2 (1864)

The second major building constructed by the Willimantic Linen Company was Mill No. 2, completed in 1864. The company, founded by Austin Dunham (1805-1877) and Lawson Ives (1804-1867) in 1854, had erected its first mill building in 1857. Like that earlier structure, Mill No. 2 was constructed of gneiss by builder Nathaniel Olin. He had already built a dam for the new mill the previous year. Anticipating the effects of the coming Civil War, Dunham and Ives had started stockpiling raw cotton in the 1850s and were later able to use the proceeds from the sale of cotton thread during the war to erect Mill No. 2, as well as worker housing. In 1872, dormer windows were added to the mill to urn the attic into a usable workspace. These windows were removed after they were damaged in the Hurricane of 1938. More buildings would be added to the mill complex over the years, with several structures being connected to Mill No. 2: the Dye House on the west and the Wheel House and Machine Shop on the south were built in 1864. The Store House & Inspection Building was built on the east side in 1872. The Bleachery (later also called the Dye House) was attached on the west side of the 1864 Dye House in 1883. The result was an extended façade of connected mill buildings that extends over 700 feet. In 1898 the mills were taken over by the American Thread Company. Mill operations ceased in 1895. The complex, located at 322 Main Street in Willimantic, has been redeveloped as the Windham Mills Business Center.

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Willimantic Linen Company, Mill No. 1 (1857)

The Willimantic Linen Company was founded in 1854 by Austin Dunham (1805-1877) and Lawson Ives (1804-1867). The company acquired the old Jillson cotton mill in Willimantic with the intention of producing linen, but soon switched exclusively to cotton manufacturing. In 1857, the company erected its first mill building north of the Willimantic River, at the current address of 480 Main Street. Later known as Mill No. 1, it was constructed of locally quarried gneiss by builder was Nathaniel Olin. That same year the company erected an accompanying dam and a stone arch bridge, known as the Windham Road Bridge, on the east side of the mill. Built by Lyman Jordan and Nathaniel Olin, the bridge is now Windham Garden on the Bridge, part of Windham Mills State Heritage Park. The mill building was expanded with an addition on the west side in 1878. The company would expand over the years into a mill complex of many buildings, which were eventually taken under over by the American Thread Company in 1898. Textile production came to an end in 1985. The former Mill No. 1 was converted c. 2003 to become ArtSpace, a housing facility with a community art gallery. The building’s dormer windows were removed at that time.

Horace Hickok House (1845)

The house at 66 Greenwood Avenue in Bethel is transitional between the architectural styles of the Greek Revival (note the columns on the front porch) and the Italianate (note the rooftop cupola with curved windows). The house was erected c. 1845 (before 1851) by Horace Hickok, a hat manufacturer and descendant of Capt. Ebenezer Hickok, who had given land for the Bethel Congregational Church‘s meetinghouse and burial ground in the eighteenth century.

Noank Depot (1858)

At 102 Front Street in Noank is a small building with board-and-batten siding that is believed to have been the community’s original railroad station. It was built in 1858, with the completion of the last major section of the Shore Line Rail Road, connecting Boston and New York City. Since the discontinuation of railroad service, the building has been used as a store, with an extension erected on the Front Street side.

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Second Meeting House, Bethel (1842)

At 40 Main Street in Bethel is a building known as the Second Meeting House. It was built in 1842 and was indeed the second meeting house to be erected by the First Congregational Church of Bethel. The first meeting house, built in 1760, had burned down. In 1865, a strong wind blew down the second meeting house’s steeple, which fell through the roof of the building. As related in James Montgomery Bailey’s History of Danbury (1896): “In the spring of 1865, during a gale, the house was injured by the falling of the spire, and having been repaired, was sold to the town and moved ten rods west of its former site.” In 1866, the church erected its third and current meeting house, located at 46 Main Street, where the first meeting house had once stood. After being sold to the town, the Second Meeting House served as Town Hall until 1939. Today, the building is the headquarters of the Bethel Historical Society, which rents out the hall. It is also the meeting place of Bethel VFW Post 935.