Morris W. Bacon was a noted New London businessman, philanthrophist and sportsman, known for his racing horses and fine yachts. At one time he owned a property on upper State Street with a house and a barn for his thoroughbreds. In 1895, he sold the property to Frank Munsey, who built the Mohican Hotel on the land. Morris had another house on Channing Street, facing Granite Street. Probably built around 1870, the house was pictured in the 1901 book, Picturesque New London and its Environs.
The Chester, or Elias, Bragaw House is a brick mansion at the corner of Broad and Williams Streets in New London. Built in 1908 in the style of the Second Renaissance Revival (1890s-1920s), the house (183 Williams Street) was designed by James P. Duffy. A fire destroyed the interior of the building in 1980, which was restored and is now used for apartments (note, in the picture above, how the window openings of the house were made smaller to accommodate smaller standard-sized window panes).
The Elisha Parish-James M. Jones House is a double house at 404-412 Atlantic Street in Bridgeport. The house originally had 2-story verandas on either side of the structure’s front pavilion, which has double bay windows. The verandas on the east side remain, but those on the west side were rebuilt and enclosed in the the mid-twentieth century.
The early Colonial Revival house built for Enoch P. Hincks in 1894 is at 515 Washington Avenue in Bridgeport. Warren Briggs was the architect of the house, which is constructed of brick with limestone and terra cotta highlights. Enoch P. Hincks was president of Hincks & Johnson, carriage manufacturers. As described in the second volume of Orcutt’s A History of the Old Town of Stratford and the City of Bridgeport (1886):
Hincks and Johnson, manufacturers of fine heavy carriages, such as coaches, landaus, broughams, coupes, hansom cabs, established their business on Broad street in May, 1879, as successors to Wood Brothers, who, with Stephen and Russell Tomlinson, gained a well deserved reputation during seventeen years of successful labors in the business. Mr. David Wood was among the first to commence a manufactory of heavy carriages in this country, beginning in 1828, under the firm name of Tomlinson, Wood and Company, Mr. Hincks is a native of this city, and Mr. Johnson was engaged In New York for a term of years before starting the business here. They occupy the original edifice built in 1831, with such additions as have been made from time to time, and now cover over two acres of ground floor, giving employment to 100 or 150 hands. They turn out complete about 200 of the larger carriages or coaches yearly, and of other styles a greater number, being, in fact, the largest establishment of the kind in New England and the second in this country. The departments for construction in wood and iron work each in itself would make a large business. They were the first to introduce recently the London hansom cabs, making some changes from the English design, and have already sold a large number of them in the most populous cities of the country. All their business is transacted at the office of their manufactory.
As reported in The Hub, Vol. I, No. 2 (May, 1908):
In connection with the revival of the rumor that the old firm of Hincks & Johnson, the well-known carriage manufacturers of Bridgeport, Conn., intend to go out of business, Enoch P. Hincks, senior member of the firm, practically confirmed the report recently, when he said that nothing definite had been decided upon, but that neither he nor Mr. Johnson cared to continue in business much longer. “We are both getting along in years,” said Mr. Hincks. “We have no plans for the future.”
This firm has had many years of a prosperous trade and its reputation among the trade is of the best. At different times during the past ten years there have been reports of the sale of the firm’s valuable property in Bridgeport.
The Second Congregational Church of New London, at 45 Broad Street, was built in 1868. According to the History of New London, by Frances Manwaring Caulkins, “A second Congregational church was organized [due to overcrowding] by a colony of nineteen members from the first church, April 28th, 1835. A church had been previously built [it had been completed in August, 1834] and dedicated April 23d [1835].” This church, which stood at the corner of Jay and Huntington Streets, was later destroyed by fire and the current church, on Broad Street was dedicated in 1870. It was designed by the Albany, NY architects Nichols and Brown. The church suffered complete interior damage during a fire on December 3, 1926.
The building which is now the Norwich Grange Hall was built in 1869 as the West Town Street District School. It replaced an earlier public school on the same site, which had no longer met the needs of the growing school population. Before that, the Bean Hill Academy of 1792 had stood on the site. A private school for thirty years and then a public school, that building had been demolished in 1831. In the 1920s, with the building of the Samuel Huntington School, the 1869 building was sold to the Norwich Grange.
Known as “The Orchard,” the Gen. Gold Selleck Silliman House is located at 506 Jennings Road in Fairfield. A general in the Revolutionary War, Silliman took part in the Battle of Ridgefield in 1777. In May 1779, Silliman and his son were captured in their home by a party of tories who had crossed Long Island Sound in the night. U.S. Navy Captain David Hawley later captured Thomas Jones, a highly reputed loyalist, to exchange for Silliman a year after his capture. Gen. Silliman‘s house was also used as a place of refuge by citizens fleeing the British burning of Fairfield on July 8, 1779. Gen. Silliman’s son, Benjamin Silliman, became the first professor of science at Yale University and the first to distill petroleum.
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