Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Italianate

Collins Company Office (1868)

The Collins Axe Company was started in South Canton (which later came to be known as Collinsville) in 1826. The company constructed a village to house and provide services to the workers and their original office building, built in 1830 on Front Street, included a school and space for religious services. In 1867, this structure was moved to the corner of River and North Street and divided into two units for employee housing. The new office building, constructed to replace the old one in 1868, also contained a post office, library, a third-floor hall with a stage, and space for the local DAR to meet. These rooms were eventually used for office space as the company expanded. The building is now used for various businesses, but the snow guards along the roof are still in the shape of the Collins Company trademark of crown, arm, and hammer.

LaSalle Market (1890)

The building which now houses the LaSalle Market, on Main Street in Collinsville (in Canton) is a late nineteenth century commercial building with projecting eaves and brackets in the Italianate style. A picture from the 1890s survives showing various businesses in operation, including a meat market and a boots and shoe store. The LaSalle Market began in the 1970s on LaSalle Road in West Hartford and moved to Collinsville in 1984.

The Jonathan W. Hooker House (1864)

The Italianate style house built around 1864, for Jonathan W. Hooker, who sold real estate, is on Union Street in Norwich. The home’s porch and side wing may be later additions.

George Dunham House (1868)

The Italianate house of George Dunham, on Lovely Street in Unionville, was built in 1868. The front portico with columns was added later. In 1860, together with A.S Upson, Dunham had acquired a company which produced nuts and bolts. Originally called Upson and Dunham, the company incorporated in 1865 as the Union (later the Upson) Nut Company. Dunham invented the Dunham forged nut machine and would go on to invent a number of others.

The Eugene Kenyon Farmhouse (1870)

The first house to be built north of Farmington Avenue, in Hartford’s West End, was an 1870 farmhouse on Kenyon Street. The house was built by the developer Eugene Kenyon, who was laying out streets and planning to construct homes in what was then an area of farmland. Kenyon’s own home was on nearby Farmington Avenue and the farmhouse was soon purchased by its first owner, Maria K. Stanley. An economic downturn in the later 1870s stalled the development of the neighborhood and Kenyon lost his money, but by the 1880s, the pace of house construction in the West End accelerated. Many classic Victorian homes were constructed on Kenyon Street around 1900 and the older farmhouse was embellished over time, combining elements of the Gothic Revival and Italianate styles.

The Henry Bill House (1856)

The Italianate house of Henry Bill (1824-1891) was built in 1856 on Broadway in Norwich. Bill, a book publisher who sold many illustrated bibles, supported the education of former slaves after the Civil War. The house was acquired by the Norwich Free Academy in 1930, but is today a private home which has been restored by the current owners.

Hello to Melissa and Brett, who accompanied me on my most recent picture-taking trip in Norwich.

The Buell-Cook House (1877)

Built on South Street in Litchfield in 1877, when the Gothic Style was still popular, the Buell-Cook House survived the early twentieth-century Colonial Revival transformation of the town, although the home is now painted a Colonial Revival influenced white, rather than its original dark colors. The house was originally a duplex, but in 1982, it was converted for use by a single family.