First Church of Christ in Mansfield (1866)

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The first Congregational community in Tolland County was organized in Mansfield in 1710. The first minister was Rev. Eleazer Williams, who was succeeded by Richard Salter. The original meetinghouse was replaced by a new church in 1754 (which can be seen in an 1836 sketch of Mansfield by John Warner Barber). When that second meetinghouse was destroyed in a fire, the current church building was constructed in 1866. The First Church of Christ in Mansfield is located on Storrs Road in Mansfield Center. It was designed in the Italianate style, with its facade featuring arched windows influenced by Italian Romanesque churches. The steeple is a replacement of the original, which was destroyed in the 1938 hurricane.

S. E. Root House (1870)

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We are beginning a week that will cover buildings in Bristol. The home of Samuel Emerson Root on High Street was built in 1870 (According to Bristol Historic Homes, it was built in 1854, although its builder, the inventor Joel T. Case, did not arrive in town until the early 1870s). Root and his partner, Edward Langdon, operated a factory manufacturing clock dials. The house has been altered for use as offices, with a a one-story brick addition being constructed in the twentieth century. The house is now used by the City of Bristol’s Youth Services.

Nathaniel Shipman House (1860)

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Nathaniel Shipman was a lawyer, Federal judge, and a founding partner of the law firm of Shipman & Goodwin, which is still prominent today. His house, on Charter Oak Place in Hartford, was built in 1860 in the Italianate style. Charter Oak Place was a fashionable neighborhood when Shipman moved there, and today has many surviving houses built between 1858 and 1875, including two Italianate double houses, the Kingsbury-Gatling House, the Robinson-Smith House and the Charles Northam House.

Cheney Firehouse (1901)

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The Cheney family of silk manufacturers had a firehouse constructed on Pine Street in Manchester in 1901 to house the South Manchester Fire District‘s Hose & Ladder Company No. 1, which served the Cheneys’ silk mills and the surrounding neighborhoods. At that time, the Cheney Fire Station relied on the latest horse-drawn equipment. The Cheneys later sold the building, which is now owned by the town of Manchester. Since 1979, it has been rented to the Connecticut Firemen’s Historical Society, who operate the Fire Museum in the building.

Francis Cowles House (1840)

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The Francis Cowles House, built circa 1840 (another source estimates circa 1844 and another circa 1835) on Main Street in Farmington, represents a transition in style from the Greek Revival (the colonnaded front porch) to the Italianate (the low pitched roof with bracketed cornice). A plaque in the building indicates it was built circa 1835 and was acquired for the school by the trustees of Miss Porter’s estate in 1901. (A now defunct website had mistakenly indicated that the house was purchased by Sarah Porter for her school in 1889). The house now serves as a dorm called “Brick“. The house is located on the site of the house where Sarah Porter’s father, the Rev. Noah Porter, was born, in the house of his father, Robert Porter. (Note: post edited 5/28/15 to reflect corrected info).