Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Architectural Style

Albert F. Rockwell House (1876)

Clifford S. Brown was the first owner of an 1876 Queen Anne-style house on Summer Street in Bristol, which was designed by Joel T. Case. Case’s houses are known for having unusual features, with this example having a square corner tower, uncommon for the Queen Anne style. The house was later sold to the inventor Alfred F. Rockwell, who lived there with his wife Nettie. He would later build a large mansion in Bristol, called Brightwood, which has since been destroyed.

Born in Woodhull, New York, Albert Fenimore Rockwell worked at various trades in different places, including several years in Florida in the fruit and hardware businesses. Leaving Florida because of yellow fever, he came to Bristol in 1888 and, in the next year, founded the New Departure Manufacturing Company with his brother Edward. Originally set up to produce a new doorbell based on clockworks, Rockwell’s company would become very successful making bicycle lamps and coaster brakes, which Rockwell patented with Harry P. Townsend. Later, New Departure became the world’s largest producer of ball bearings. Rockwell also produced various automobiles between 1908 and 1911, including the Rockwell taxicab and various Houpt-Rockwell models. In 1913, he was ousted from New Departure, which later became part of General Motors, but went on to purchase the Marlin Firearms Company, manufacturing Marlin-Rockwell machine guns and automatic rifles during the First World War. Before his death in 1925, he donated land for the city to build what is now called the Memorial Boulevard Middle School, on the road called Memorial Boulevard. He also donated the land for Rockwell Park.

S. E. Root House (1870)

We are beginning a week that will cover buildings in Bristol. The home of Samuel Emerson Root on High Street was built in 1870 (According to Bristol Historic Homes, it was built in 1854, although its builder, the inventor Joel T. Case, did not arrive in town until the early 1870s). Root and his partner, Edward Langdon, operated a factory manufacturing clock dials. The house has been altered for use as offices, with a a one-story brick addition being constructed in the twentieth century. The house is now used by the City of Bristol’s Youth Services.

Capt. Charles Francis, Jr. House (1799)

The 1799 house of Capt. Charles Francis, Jr. of Wethersfield is located on Hartford Ave. Wethersfield’s Cove Park lies behind the house, which now serves as the Wethersfield Cove Yacht Club.

Cheney School (1859)

The Cheney School house of 1859 was originally located on a hill, west of Pine Street and north of Cooper Hill Street, in Manchester. In 1914, it was moved to its current location, on Cedar Street, by the Cheney Brothers Silk Manufacturing Company to make room for a new dye house. Over the years, the building has served as a day care center, storage space and a children’s museum. In 1985, it became the Museum of Local History, now known as the Old Manchester Museum, managed by the Manchester Historical Society. Another notable schoolhouse nearby is the 1975 replica of the original 1751 one-room Keeney Schoolhouse, located on the grounds of the Cheney Homestead.

The Dr. Elisha N. Sill House (1800)

Dr. Elisha Noyes Sill served in the Revolutionary War and was a town clerk of Windsor and a member of the Connecticut General Assembly. His house, built in 1800, is located in Windsor on Palisado Ave. Dr. Sill was the grandfather of Edward Rowland Sill, a nineteenth-century poet and educator. The Sill property also has a historic barn.

Nehemiah Street House (1769)

Nehemiah Street, a tailor, built his house on Main Street in Farmington in 1769. He was robbed and killed in 1791 in Niagara Falls, where he had driven cattle to sell. In 1829, his house was bought by Leonard Winship, a cabinet maker, who updated the house in the Greek Revival style, altering the roof and adding the attic windows.

Gilbert W. Chapin House (1898)

The 1898 house of Gilbert W. Chapin stands on Farmington Avenue in Hartford, adjacent to the home of Mary Rowell Storrs, widow of Zalmon Storrs who, like Chapin, worked at the Society for Savings. The Chapin House, now used for offices, was designed in the Georgian Revival style by Ernest Flagg. It is less monumental than his plan for the nearby Immanuel Church, built a year later.