Architectural Style - Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Clark Greenman House (1841)

Three brothers, George, Clark and Thomas Greenman, founded the the George Greenman & Co. shipyard in Mystic. The brothers soon built three adjacent Greek Revival homes along Greenmanville Avenue. The first was constructed by George in 1839 and this was followed by the houses of Clark and Thomas in 1841 and 1842. The Clark Greenman House has a porch and ornate Victorian decoration, which were added in the 1870s. The house was acquired by Mystic Seaport in 1949, initially serving as the museum’s library and now housing its administrative offices.

Benjamin Trumbull House (1790)

The Benjamin Trumbull House in Colchester was built sometime between 1790 and 1801. According to Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College with Annals of the College History, Vol. IV (1907), by Franklin Bowditch Dexter:

Benjamin Trumbull, the only son of the Rev. Dr. Benjamin Trumbull (Yale 1759) who survived infancy, was born in North Haven, Connecticut, on September 24, 1769. He remained in New Haven for two years after graduation, filling the office of College Butler, and pursuing the study of law. On his admission to the bar he returned to the vicinity of the birthplace of his parents, and settled in Colchester, Connecticut, where he had a long career of usefulness. He was sent to the Legislature as a Representative eleven times between 1807 and 1831, and for about twenty years (1818-38) was Judge of the Probate Districts of East Haddam and Colchester.

Benjamin Trumbull’s son, Lyman Trumbull, was born and raised in the house. Lyman Trumbull later became a senator from Illinois and a founder of the Republican Party and an associate of Abraham Lincoln. He helped author the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ending slavery. The house is on the Connecticut Freedom Trail.

Windsor Avenue Congregational Church (1871)

Faith Congregational Church, located on Main Street, across from Spring Grove Cemetery, in Hartford’s North End, was originally built as the Windsor Avenue Congregational Church in 1871. The Romanesque Revival and High Victorian Gothic style church was constructed by the Pavillion Congregational Society, organized in 1870. Among the church’s ministers was Charles E. Stowe, pastor from 1883 to 1890. Stowe was the son of Harriet Beecher Stowe, who attended church there regularly during her son’s ministry. Since 1953, the church has been the home of Faith Congregational Church, a congregation formed from a merger of Talcott Street Congregational Church and Mother Bethel Methodist Church. Talcott Street Congregational was Hartford’s first black church, founded by the African Religious Society in 1826. Members of the Society had become weary of being assigned seats in the rear of churches and wished to found a church where there would be no assigned seating. The church became an important institution for Hartford’s black community and a center for abolitionist activity. An early minister was James W.C. Pennington, who had escaped slavery in Maryland. Rev. Pennington feared being dragged back to slavery, until John Hooker, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s brother-in-law, purchased his freedom from the estate of his former owner. The African Religious Society also founded Hartford’s first black public school in 1829. Faith Congregational Church is a site on the Connecticut Freedom Trail.

(more…)

The John Marsh House (1783)

The John Marsh House, located near Hartford’s border with Windsor, is the only eighteenth century house remaining in the city’s North End. It was built in 1783 by Hezekiah Marsh for his son, John Marsh. The Marsh family farm has long since been developed and even the house’s front yard has been significantly reduced. The home’s Greek Revival doorway is a nineteenth century alteration.

The Captain John Johnson House (1795)

The community of Middle Haddam in the Town of East Hampton, like neighboring Haddam Neck, was once a shipbuilding center. Captain John Johnson, who had been a privateer, began a sail loft on his property at Knowles Landing, employing four women to sew the sails. His house, in the colonial cape style, was built around 1795 and has been much altered over the years.

Saint Clements Castle (1902)

Saint Clements Castle is located along the Connecticut River in Portland. It was built for Howard Taylor, a solicitor, and his wife Gertrude and was designed by New York architect Sidney Algernon Bell. The mansion displays the influence of sixteenth century European castles, while the roofs resemble those found on homes in the Bavarian alps. A Norman inspiration appears in the stone tower, above the French Tudor entrance. The balcony was modeled on the Inn of William the Conqueror at Dives-sur-Mer and the living room is based on the Great Hall of the Chateau of Langeais. Construction was finished on November 23, 1902. Because November 23 was celebrated in England as the Feast of St. Clement, an early pope and Apostolic Father, the name “Saint Clements Castle” was chosen for the house. In 1993, the house’s then owner turned the 82-acre estate over to the nonprofit Saint Clements Foundation, which has restored the home and is dedicated to preserving the historic property. More pictures below… (more…)

Ira Lee House (1806)

Located at 1 Blacksmith Hill Road in Middle Haddam in East Hampton, the Ira Lee House is a Federal-style home built in 1806. Lee was described, in The History of Middlesex County (1884), as “a prominent citizen of Middle Haddam, and at one time a justice of the peace and judge of Probate.” His house reflects a common rural variety of the Federal style, with the structure following a traditional center-chimney colonial design, the Federal details being restricted to the elaborate doorway. The house has its original six-paneled door.