Thornton Wilder House (1929)

Deepwood Drive, off Whitney Avenue in Hamden and adjacent to the town’s border with New Haven, was developed in the 1920s on on an old estate. Known architecturally for its many modern houses, the street also has older-style homes and was landscaped to have a rural appearance. Many of the homes are oriented away from the street, often obscuring them from the road. One such house, at 50 Deepwood Drive, was built in 1929 by Thornton Wilder, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and novelist. Built as home for himself, his parents and sisters with the royalties from his famous novel, The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927), Wilder referred to it as “the house the bridge built.” Wilder had a view of New Haven and East Rock from his English style country home, which sits on the edge of a promontory. He shared the house with his sister, Isabel, until he died in 1975. Thornton Wilder furniture and memorabilia from the house’s study are on display at the Miller Memorial Central Library in Hamden.

Marlborough Congregational Church (1842)

Beginning in 1736, residents of what would become Marlborough made repeated petitions to the Connecticut General Assembly to form their own Congregational Society, which was eventually incorporated in 1747. According to Miss Mary Hall, in the Memorial History of Hartford County (1886), “The society without doubt took its name from Marlborough, Mass.; the largest tax-payer in the society being David Bigelow, a representative of a family conspicuous in the history of the old town of Marlborough, Mass. Ezra Carter, another influential member of the new society, came from the same town.” A meeting house was begun in 1748 and, again quoting from Hall, “The work of framing, raising, and covering the house was now begun, the expense being defrayed by levying a tax of four shillings on the pound. A little later in the same year the windows were glazed. This seems to have exhausted their resources, and nothing more was done until April, 1754,” when a pulpit, seats and pews were installed. Work continued over the years, until the “painting and underpinning of the meetinig-house and the laying of its steps made this remarkable structure complete in 1803. It had been fifty-four years in building, and was finished by laying the corner-stone last.” The church was completed the same year Marlborough was incorporated as a town. By 1841, a new church was needed. The original was torn down and the current Marlborough Congregational Church building was constructed in 1842, just back from the site of its predecessor above South Main Street. The original steeple was toppled in the Hurricane of 1938 and and was rebuilt.

Charles Bell House (1883)

Charles H. Bell was a merchant in Portland who continued the business started by his father, Edwin Bell. In 1867, the elder Bell had purchased Samuel Hall’s store on Main Street and Charles Bell would vastly enlarge the building, adding a third floor to the original two-stories. The style of the new third floor resembled the Queen Anne with stick elements of Bell’s own house, built on Main Street in 1883, which perhaps utilized the same materials. Bell’s store sold groceries, flour, hay, grain, seeds and light agricultural implements. Bell also partnered with John Anderson in a firm to manufacture a new kind of lead pipe coupling, patented by Anderson in 1895. (see Portland in 1896 pdf file, p.6)

Crescent Street Row Houses, Middletown (1867)

Urban-style row houses are not so common in Connecticut, but a notable example can be found at 71-83 Crescent Street in Middletown. These Mansard-roofed houses were built in 1866-1867 by Julius Hotchkiss, an entrepreneur and politician, who had been mayor of Waterbury and began serving in the United States House of Representatives the year the original houses were completed. The house at #71 was built in 1895 by his daughter, M. Amelia Vinal, who had married the lawyer, Charles Green Rich Vinal.

Walter Brewster House (1787)

Located on Library Road off Canterbury Green is the small center-chimney home built by Walter Brewster around 1787. Brewster was a clock-maker and a silversmith and goldsmith. In 1792, Brewster joined with other Connecticut artisans (including much more well-to-do ones, like the manufacturer Christopher Leffingwell of Norwich) in a huge petition drive protesting the state’s taxation system and the ruling gentry. In 1797, Walter Brewster sold his house to his brother, Abel Brewster, also a goldsmith, silversmith and pewterer who, according to A Modern History of New London County (1922),

“had a goldsmith shop on the meeting house green in Canterbury, Connecticut, where his brother, Walter Brewster, also lived. In the “Courier,” published at Norwich, April 3, 1799, J. Huntington & Co. advertise among other things, “Table and Tea Spoons made to any pattern by Abel Brewster of Canterbury, may be had of Huntington & Co., also orders for any kind of Goldsmith and Jewellry Articles left with them will be executed by said Brewster with neatness and dispatch. Norwich Port, March 26. 1799”

In November, 1804, he seems to have set up his shop in Norwich Landing, and advertises that he is now selling for the most reasonable prices in cash or approved notes, a variety of warranted middling and low prized watches, chains, seals, keys, warranted silver table, tea, salt and mustard spoons; sugar tongs, silver thimbles, a variety of fashionable gold ear rings, knobs, lockets, bosom pins, and finger rings; warranted gold necklaces of superior quality; ladies’ and gentlemen’s morocco pocket books; pen knives, most kinds of watch materials and a variety of other articles in his line. “N.B. All kinds of Watches repaired with the utmost punctuality and dispatch. Cash and the highest price given for old gold and silver.” On February 27, 1805, he advertises, “A SUCCESSOR WANTED—ABEL BREWSTER. Finding the care necessary in his business too great for the present state of his health, offers to dispose of his whole stock in Business, consisting of Watches, Furnishing Materials, Jewelry, Silver and Fancy Work, Tools, &c, &c. He thinks the call highly worthy the attention of some Gentleman of the profession. Also for sale, the house, shop and garden formerly occupied by him and beautifully situated on Canterbury Green.” In “The Courier” of April 3, 1805, he announces that “Having disposed of his business to Messrs Judah Hart and Alvin Wilcox, he requests all persons indebted to him (whose debts have become due) to make immediate payment without further notice.” He died in 1807, and the inventory of his estate included a small house and lot “in Swallowall” (now Franklin Square) in Norwich.

The day of the old-time gold or silversmith had nearly passed; much of the work was now done by machinery, and while spoons still continued to be occasionally made, yet seldom has a good specimen been found in this section of later-day work.”