Courtlands (1892)

In about 1892, Mary Frances Clark Hoppin (1842–1934) built a mansion in Pomfret called Courtlands. She was the widow of Dr. Courtland Hoppin (1834–1876) of Providence, Rhode Island, and was the daughter of Joseph Washington Clark, a wealthy Boston investor, who had a summer home in Pomfret. She had earlier lived in a house she had built in Pomfret after her husband died. She later gave that home to the Pomfret School, where it is now Robinson House, the school’s admissions office. After her death, Courtlands became St. Robert’s Hall, a Jesuit monastery and seminary, dedicated in December 1935. Since 1974, the mansion and 114-acre estate have been home to the New England Laborers’ Training Academy, with an address of 37 Deerfield Road in Pomfret.

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Stephen H. White House (1847)

The Greek Revival house at 585 Main Street in Portland was built in the 1840s (possibly 1847). It was originally the home of Stephen H. White. This may be the Stephen H. White, son of George White, who is described in the Memorials of Elder John White (1860), by Allyn S. Kellogg, page 206 as

born in Portland, Dec. 15, 1820. He resides there, and is a farmer and carpenter.

He married twice, first in 1844 to Sarah Risley of Glastonbury (died 1846); second in 1850 to Almira W. Ufford of Portland.

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George E. Barrows House (1838)

The house at 15 Pearl Street in Middletown was built in either 1838 or 1839, at a time when the street was experiencing development as a neighborhood for the urban middleclass of tradespeople and small business owners. It was erected by George E. Barrows, who had a joiner’s shop on the property and may have contributed his skills to the construction. From 1851 to 1883, it was the home of Charles H. Pelton, a printer who had worked with Horace Greeley in New York. The house remained in the Pelton family until 1915.

Burlingame Building, Institute of Living (1948)

One of the buildings on the campus of the Institute of Living (originally chartered in 1822 as the Retreat for the Insane) in Hartford is the Burlingame Research Building. Erected in 1948, the eight-story building was designed by architect Irving W. Rutherford and was named for Dr. C. Charles Burlingame (1885-1950), who was superintendent of the institution in the 1930s-40s. Atop the building is a tower that displays the symbol of the Caduceus on four sides and is crowned by a golden dome. The tower was lit at night because it was directly in line with runways at Brainard Field (see “Dome Atop Burlingame Building Completed At Institute Of Living,” Hartford Courant, November 25, 1948). The following year a connected eight-story part of the building, called the Psycho-Surgery Building, was opened. (see “Psycho-Surgery Plant Now In Use At Institute,” Hartford Courant, April 17, 1949). Here lobotomies were performed until the 1960s. The operating room was on the sixth floor and the fifth floor was the infirmary for care of immediate post-operative patients. The fourth floor was described in the Hartford Courant (in the 1949 article referenced above) as “unique in the hospital world.” It contained classrooms for retraining those who had been operated on, including social, vocational and recreational development. Subjects included home economics, commercial art, and accounting. Today the Institute is part of Hartford Hospital and the Burlingame Building contains a library and offices.

Capt. Avery Brown House (1812)

The house at 11 Gravel Street in Mystic was built about 1812 by Capt. Avery Brown, who commanded the sloop Minerva. He also served as bos’n on the Hero, a 47-foot sloop that was built at the Packard Shipyard in Mystic as a costal trader and became a privateer and blockade runner during the War of 1812. Nathaniel Palmer of Stonington was captain of the vessel on a sealing voyage in 1820 when he discovered Antarctica. Next to Capt. Brown’s house is the John Fellows House at 13 Gravel Street, built c. 1827-1836. It is traditionally called the “spite house” because it was built out far enough into the street to spoil Capt. Brown’s view upriver.

Little Red Schoolhouse, Winchester (1815)

Located at the intersection of Platt Hill and Taylor Brook Roads in Winchester is a one-room schoolhouse built in 1815 to replace an earlier one on the same site that had burned down in the 1790s. The new building, Winchester’s District No. 8 schoolhouse, was heated by a fireplace until a box stove was installed in the 1830s. The schoolhouse was in use until it closed in 1908. It then remained abandoned for the next eight years. In 1916, William H. Hall, a historian for whom Hall High School in West Hartford is named, expressed his concern for the neglected building in an article Winsted Evening Citizen. This inspired Clifford Bristol to buy and repair the building. Bristol had been a student at the school about 1870 and his father, Charles A. Bristol, had been a teacher there. In June of 1916, Bristol held a reunion in the school of former teachers and students. In 1923 another meeting was held in the building which formed the Little Red Schoolhouse Association, dedicated to preserving the historic building. The organization’s membership had dwindled by the early 2000s, but in recent years there has been renewed interest and fundraising efforts to allow restoration of the building to its original condition. The restored schoolhouse reopened to the public in 2018. Other Connecticut buildings called “The Little Red Schoolhouse” can be found in North Branford (built 1805) and Wethersfield (built 1869).Bristol held a reunion in the school of former teachers and students. In 1923 another meeting was held in the building which formed the Little Red Schoolhouse Association, dedicated to preserving the historic building. The organization’s membership had dwindled by the early 2000s, but in recent years there has been renewed interest and fundraising efforts to allow restoration of the building to its original condition. The restored schoolhouse reopened to the public in 2018.

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