Joseph Porter, who worked for the Sperry & Barnes meat-packing plant (on Long Wharf) and was an original board member of the Free Public Library, lived in an 1879 Italianate house on Wooster Street in New Haven.
The Joseph Porter House (1879)
The William Lewis House (1850)
William Lewis was the partner of Nelson Hotchkiss in a company which produced sashes and blinds. The partners also developed real estate along Chapel Street in New Haven, each building a house there in 1850. In 1854, Hotchkiss built a second house down the street. The Lewis House, like the two Hotchkiss houses, may be the work of New Haven architect Henry Austin, or at least inspired by his designs.
Horchow Hall (1859)
Yale University’s Horcow Hall, on Hillhouse Avenue in New Haven, was originally built in 1859 as a house for Pelitiah Perit, a merchant. It was the first home on the street to be painted brown. The architect was Sidney Mason Stone, the father of Margaret Sidney, author of the Five Little Peppers series of children’s books). A third floor was added to the Renaissance-Revival home in the 1860s and a large rear wing was added by Henry L. Hotchkiss, who acquired the house in 1888. In the 1930s, the house was purchased by Yale and became an annex for the Peabody Museum and the Bingham Oceanographic Laboratory. In the 1960s, it became a faculty residence and in 1984, renamed Horchow Hall, it was renovated to become one of the buildings of Yale’s School of Management.
Sterling Opera House (1889)
The industrial village of Birmingham, initially developed by such entrepreneurs as John I. Howe, Anson Greene Phelps and Sheldon Smith, continued to industrialize and was incorporated as the City of Derby in 1893. With growth came labor unrest. In 1901, after seventy woman in the underwear room of the Paugussett Mills had been on strike for 54 days, Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor, arrived in Derby at the invitation of Stephen Charters, head of the local carpenters union. In one day, Gompers negotiated a settlement and the next night announced the results to a packed audience at the Sterling Opera House, on Elizabeth Street, facing Derby Green. The Italianate-style Opera House, named for Charles Sterling of the Sterling Piano Company, was completed in 1889 and was in use until 1945. Many famous individuals, from Harry Houdini to Amelia Earhart, appeared at the Sterling during its time as a vaudeville palace. The two lower floors were used as the Derby city hall and police station until 1965. The building was designed by H.E. Ficken (who was also involved in creating Carnegie Hall). He modeled the Hall’s triangular seating plan on the ideas of German composer Richard Wagner as realized in the famous Bayreuth Festspielhaus in Bavaria. The Sterling became known for its excellent acoustics. Planning for the restoration of the building, begun several years ago. Work began and then stalled for some time, but continued renovations of the exterior are now underway.
James Niles House (1869)
The Italianate style house of James Niles, on Charter Oak Place in Hartford, was built in 1869. It was later owned by the Ketridge and Hillard families. If you want to learn more about Italianate and Gothic Revival houses, please read my latest article!
(more…)Elisha Covell House (1856)
Elisha Covell built an Italianate-style house on Main Street in Portland around 1854-1856. He had come to Portland to work for Col. Joseph Blague, marrying Blague’s daughter Mary a few years after her father’s death. Covell then built his house on part of the Blague estate.
Lubin Burton Rockwood House (1855)
The home of Rev. Lubin Burton Rockwood, on Riverview Road in Rocky Hill, was built in 1855 or just before. Rev. Rockwood was a Presbyterian minister. Born in New Hampshire, he was a graduate of Dartmouth College and Andover and Union theological seminaries. Ordained in New York in 1845, he served as a pastor at Rocky Hill’s Congregational Church from 1850 to 1859. He also became president and librarian of Rocky Hill’s Social Library Association. The Associations books were kept at his house from 1855-1866.
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