Union League Club of New Haven (1902)

union-league-cafe.jpg

The site on Chapel Street in New Haven which is now the home of the Union League Cafe has a notable history and has seen many changes over the years. It the eighteenth century, it was the site of Roger Sherman‘s house. Sherman, who served as New Haven’s first mayor and as representative and senator in Congress, was the only person to sign all four of the great state papers of the United States: the Continental Association, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution. In 1860, an Italianate house was built here designed by Henry Austin for Gaius Fenn Warner, head of G. F. Warner & Co., manufacturers of malleable iron. Peter Carll moved to the house in 1874 and in 1880 built an opera theatre, later called the Hyperion Theater, at the back of the house. This theater was demolished in 1998, having been vacant for more than two decades. During the demolition, a second-floor projection booth in the building collapsed, raining down slabs of concrete, bricks and steel and spreading a thick cloud of smoke over Chapel Street. The house itself served as the home of the Union League Club of New Haven, a private civic and social club, from the 1880s to the 1940s. In 1902, the current Beaux Arts addition, designed by New Haven architect Richard Williams, was built on the front of the building, creating a striking facade on Chapel Street. Although vacant for a time, the structure, known today as the Sherman Building, is now home to the Union League Cafe, a French restaurant. Adjacent to the building is Sherman’s Alley, originally a grassy area, which is now home to retail outlets.

Durham Grange Hall (1836)

durham-grange.jpg

The Methodist Episcopal Church in Durham was organized in 1815, with the South District School House being used for worship. Membership soon dwindled after conflicts within the church, but in 1830, according to William Chauncey Fowler’s History of Durham (1866):

Dr. Chauncey Andrews being in the practice of medicine in the town, secured a place for holding Methodist meetings, and at his own expense fitted up a room in the Academy on the Green and hired a Local Preacher from Middletown by the name of Isham, to preach six Sabbaths, incurring the responsibility of paying him without any orders from the Society or Class. From that time forward Methodist meetings were held regularly on the Sabbath, and the students and Professors from the Wesleyan University at Middletown, supplied the pulpit.

Membership now increased quickly until a Methodist church building was constructed on Main Street in 1836. Durham Methodists joined with Congregationalists in 1941 to form the United Churches of Durham, using the North Congregational Church building for their united worship. The old Greek Revival-style Methodist church then became a Grange Hall and is now used as office space (see also: pdf).

St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Cheshire (1840)

st-peters-episcopal-church.JPG

The Episcopal parish in Cheshire was formed in 1751, under the leadership of Rev. Ichabod Camp, an Anglican priest born in Durham, who later traveled to the west. The first Episcopal church was built in 1760, replaced by a new one ten years later. According to Old Historic Homes of Cheshire (1895), compiled by Edwin R. Brown, “This second church building was low between joints. In 1795 a very high steeple was added—much out of proportion to the building. It is stated that when the Bishop of the Diocese first saw this high steeple, he remarked: ‘They had better now build a church for the steeple.'” The oldest part of the current St. Peter’s Church, the Nave, was built in 1840 and the hipped-roofed front section was added to it in 1889.

The William G. Peck House (1867)

litchfield-william-g-peck-1867.jpg

This is the thousandth post at Historical Buildings of Connecticut! To celebrate, you may have noticed the new poll at the top of the sidebar. Please vote!!! Today’s building is the William G. Peck House, which is on North Street in Litchfield and was built in 1867. William Guy Peck was born in Litchfield in 1820, graduated from West Point (pdf, p. 81) in 1844 and served in the corps of Topographical Engineers. He later taught mathematics at West Point and later at Columbia College, where he also taught engineering and led the Department of Mechanics in the School of Mines. He married a daughter of the mathematician, Charles Davies. According to an 1892 obituary:

He was the author of numerous works, including a mathematical dictionary, and text-books in arithmetic, algebra, geometry and trigonometry, differential and integral calculus, determinants, mechanics, physics, and astronomy. His works are characterized by lucidity, conciseness and directness. His teaching was distinguished by the same excellent qualities. His full and exact knowledge of the subjects which he taught, his clear exposition and illustration of them, his enthusiasm, his solicitude for the advancement and welfare of the students, the humor with which he occasionally illumined his lectures, made his room an attractive one, and his courses sought after and enjoyed. It is within the personal knowledge of very many, perhaps the most, of those by whom this notice will be read, that no professor in the college was more beloved than he.

Tallmadge Store/ J.C. Wadsworth House (1784)

litchfield-tallmadge-store.jpg

Benjamin Tallmadge, spymaster for George Washington during the Revolutionary War, moved to Litchfield after the war and became a successful merchant. His store, built around 1784, originally stood next to his home on Litchfield’s North Street. It was moved across the street around 1811 and incorporated into the house of J.C. Wadsworth, which still stands today on the east side of North Street.

David Smith Post Office (1852)

david-smith-post-office.jpg

Rev. David Smith built a small post office building around 1852 which he operated next to his home on Maple Avenue in Durham. When he died in 1854, he was succeeded by his daughter, Catherine. When she married Henry L. Ellsworth in 1857, the building was moved to its current location on Main Street, across from the town green. In the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the old post office housed a succession of stores, eventually becoming a residence. The building has been altered, with an addition on the east end, facing away from the street.