Turel Whittemore Tavern (1778)

Located across from where Pearl Street splits from South Main Street, on a high bluff above the Naugatuck River, is a structure that was perhaps built as early as 1740. It was acquired around 1778 by E. Turel Whittemore and served as a tavern. At that point, the building was only one story high. The second story was added in 1867 by Martin Castle, who dismantled the building’s old chimney and used the stones to constructed the terraced wall in front of the property. On the northwest corner of the old tavern was a barroom, where in 1780 a group of Torries planned the robbery of the home of the Patriot, Capt. Ebenezer Dayton, which was located in Bethany. This infamous incident led to the dramatic kidnapping, in nearby Oxford, of the Patriot boy, Chauncey Judd, a 16-year-old member of the Oxford militia, who ran into the fleeing robbers. They were later captured and sent to Newgate Prison and Judd was freed. The Whittemore Tavern has housed various businesses over the years.

Edmond Town Hall, Newtown (1930)

Dedicated in 1930, Newtown’s Edmond Town Hall is a multipurpose building which, in addition to town offices, has a banquet hall, gymnasium, meeting rooms and even a movie theater, the only $2 movie theater in Connecticut. The building was the gift of Mary Elizabeth Hawley and was named after her maternal great grandfather, Judge William Edmond. Miss Hawley also donated the town’s Cyrenius H. Booth Library. Both the library and the town hall were designed by achitect Philip Sutherland.

Milton Congregational Church (1791)

Begun in 1791, the interior of the Milton Congregational Church was not completed until 1841. The church was built on Milton Green by the Third Ecclesiastical Society of Litchfield and passed to the Milton Ecclesiastical Society in 1795, which established the Milton Congregational Presbyterian Church in 1798. The church was at that time painted yellow and it was decided to move the building, considered by some to be a disfigurement of the Green, across the river. It was therefre moved to its present location in 1828 onto land donated by Asa Morris. The building’s Greek Revival features were added at that time and the cupola was built in 1843. The church was without central heating until 1996, when the building was temporarily moved off its foundation while a new foundation was being poured.

Gates Building (1906)

Established in 1860, the New Britain National Bank constructed a building at the corner of West Main and Main Streets in 1906. It was designed in the Beaux Arts style by the firm of Davis & Brooks and was used by the bank into the 1930s. Now called the Gates Building, it was acquired by Florence Judd Gates, whose family had become wealthy making barbed wire. Used as retail and office space through the late 1980s, the Gates Building was later restored and now contains the New Britain Board of Education.

The Hemlocks (1847)

In 1847, Deacon Edward Lucas Hart built a house called “The Hemlocks” at 45 High Street in Farmington. He was the nephew of Deacon Simeon Hart, who ran the Hart School for boys in his home in Farmington. As explained in Farmington, the Village of Beautiful Homes (1906), Deacon Edward Lucas Hart

was born in East Haven, December 31, 1813, and died in this town May 15, 1876. He graduated at Yale College in 1836, and after teaching in New Haven and Berlin became associate principal in his uncle’s school in this village. He was a successful and inspiring teacher, much beloved by all who were favored by his friendship. He was for many years a director in the Farmington Savings Bank.

Further, as related in Alfred Andrews’s Genealogical History of Deacon Stephen Hart and His Descendants (1875):

He married April 26th, 1837, Nancy Champion Hooker, daughter of William G., of New Haven. […] He has a fine residence in Farmington, with a school-house on the premises, where he still continues a school for boys, especially in the winter season. Mr. Hart was chosen deacon of the Farmington Church in 1854.

In 1892, the Hemlocks was acquired by Amasa A. Redfield, a New York City lawyer who used the house as a weekend, summer and retirement home. When he died, the New York Times of October 20, 1902 stated that “Mr. Redfield was one of New York’s most prominent lawyers, and was also well known as a writer on legal subjects.” The house was then owned by his son, Robert Latimer Redfield, from 1902 to 1925.