Social Society Frohsinn, a German heritage club, was founded in the first decade of the twentieth century by German weavers employed by the Rossie Velvet Mill in Mystic. Frohsinn Hall, at 54 Greenmanville Avenue, was built in 1906, just a few years after the mill. It has a bar upstairs and a hall on the first floor. Over a century later, the building is still used for its original purpose, with some current members being the descendants of the first mill employees.
The house at 24 Cone Street in Hartford’s West End was constructed in 1915. The house was designed by architect Russell F. Barker (1873-1961), who designed many other residences in the area. Early in his career, Barker had worked for George Keller and later for William, H. Scoville. (more…)
As described in yesterday’s post, Thomas Danforth I (1703-1786) was a prominent maker of pewter in Norwich. One of his sons, also named Thomas, established himself as a pewterer in Middletown in 1756. He handcrafted pewter in a combination workshop and store that was originally located in an artisans’ neighborhood along Henshaw Lane, now called College Street. Thomas Danforth II (1731-1782) had six sons who became pewterers. A grandson continued the trade in Middletown until 1846. The Danforth Pewter Shop was dismantled in 1979, when its College Street location was slated to become a parking lot. It was reassembled a few years later next to 11 South Main Street, at the intersection of South Main, Pleasant and Church Streets, near Union Green. The former pewter shop is privately owned and not open to the public.
Thomas Danforth was a noted pewterer. He produced a variety of pewter tableware and was the first of several generations of pewterers. Born in 1703 in Taunton, Massachusetts, Thomas Danforth was one of fourteen children of Rev. Samuel Danforth, the town’s Congregational minister. Thomas moved to Norwich in 1733 and opened a pewterer’s and brazier’s shop on the Norwichtown Green. Two of his sons, Thomas II and John, also became pewterers. Thomas II set up shop in Middletown and became the father of six more pewterers. John worked with his father until the latter retired in 1773, when the firm of Thomas Danforth & Son was dissolved (Thomas I died in 1786). John‘s son Samuel later took over his business in 1792, finally selling it in 1802 and moving to Ellsworth, Ohio. Thomas Danforth I’s Norwich home was the house at 25 Scotland Road. It was built in 1746.
One of Durham‘s best examples of the Greek Revival style is the house at 313 Main Street (which was 138 Main Street before the numbers were changed a few years ago). The house was built around 1840 on land acquired the year before by Phineas Parmalee, a shoemaker, whose own house and shop were across the street. He sold the house for $1200 to his son, William A. Parmalee, in 1842. William A. Parmalee, a manufacturer of shoes like his father, had married Mary J. Camp in 1840. He also served as Town Clerk and as a representative to the General Assembly.
The Ecclesiastical Society of Westbury, now Watertown, was established in 1739 and the first Congregational meeting house was built in 1741 on a corner of the Old Watertown Cemetery at French and Main Streets. The second meeting house was constructed in 1772 where the Town Hall of Watertown now stands. The third and current building of the First Congregational Church of Watertown was erected in 1839 on a hill overlooking the town’s Public Green. The building was designed and erected by master builder Steven Baldwin, whose contract called for a structure that would match the size and style of the Plymouth Congregational Church, built the year before. (more…)
The former residence, now a gift shop, at 12 North Main Street in Essex, was originally located about 150 feet south of its current location. Built by Farnham Parmelee in 1818, it was purchased by Jacob Arkin in 1919, who moved it to make way for the Arkin Block, a brick commercial building.
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