Daniel White Tavern (1722)

Daniel White’s Tavern, on Hutchinson Road in Andover, was built as a house in 1722 and was opened as a tavern in 1773 by Daniel White, who was a Coventry selectman and an army captain during the Revolutionary War. Known as White’s Tavern at the Sign of the Black Horse, the house had two inner walls on the second floor which could be swung upwards to create an enlarged ballroom. The Tavern was a frequent stopping place for the comte de Rochambeau during the Revolutionary War. He stopped there in May 1781, on his way to and from his conference with Washington in Wethersfield. Later, in June of that year, when his army camped nearby in Bolton, on its way from Rhode Island to fight in the Battle of Yorktown (and again in November, when the army was returning), Rochambeau and several of his officers were guests at the Tavern. Rochambeau was there again in 1782, when he traveled to Newburgh, New York, for his final meeting with Washington.

Joseph N. Adams House (1842)

The Joseph N. Adams House is a Greek Revival home on Hayward Avenue in Colchester. The house was built around 1842 by Pomeroy Hall, one of several he built and sold in the vicinity, this house being purchased by William Mooney. It was next sold to the widow, Mrs. Lucinda Armstrong in 1847 (she later married Jared Hurlbut and moved to East Hartford); next to Nathaniel Hayward in 1857; and then to Joseph N. Adams in 1866. Adams was a shopkeeper, Justice of the Peace and secretary of the Colchester Savings Bank. The house remained in his family until 1939. Please Read my latest article on the architecture of Connecticut houses, which focuses on Early Twentieth Century Houses: Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival & American Foursquare!

Former Canton Baptist Church (1807)

In 1783, thirty members of the Presbyterian Church in West Simsbury (now Canton) separated to form a new church. Known as “separatists” or Strict Congregationalists, the new congregation split again just three years later, with about half of the members becoming Baptists. A Baptist church building was constructed in 1807 in Canton Village, on what is now Canton Green. In 1838, the church was moved to its present site, not far away on the Albany Turnpike, and remodeled in the Greek Revival style. The church had a bell founded in 1839 by George H. Holbrook of East Medway, Massachusetts. Later, in the twentieth century, the Canton Community Baptist Church moved to a new building on Dowd Avenue. The old church building is now used as offices.

Durham Academy (1844)

Durham Academy was established in 1843 as a private school during a period of time when public schooling was very inadequate. The Greek Revival-influenced Academy building was constructed in 1843-1844 and attracted students from a wide area. After the establishment of Middletown High School as a public alternative, the Durham Academy declined and eventually closed in 1884. The building was purchased by the town of Durham in 1891 and became the Coginchaug School, a consolidated school which also offered two years of high school-level instruction. This was dropped in 1898 for financial reasons, but the building later did serve as a high school, from 1916 to 1923. It next became a Lodge of the Knights of Pythias until 1973. It also served as a post office from 1935 to 1958.

Anne V. Torrant School (1874/1912)

The Anne V. Torrant School in Plainville consists of two connected buildings. The earlier Italianate structure was built in 1874, when the town’s various one and two room schools were consolidated into a single building. The second structure was built of brick in 1911-1912. In style, both buildings are similar to other schools built in Connecticut during the same period. The school was called the Broad Street School and later was renamed in honor of Anne V. Torrant, who worked there for fifty years, starting as a teacher in the 1920s and later serving as principal. The school was named for her shortly before her retirement in 1972. Today, the building is no longer a school but has been converted into housing for the elderly and is called the Torrant House.