The Victorian-era house at 46 Main Street in East Hampton was originally the home of Harry W. Strong (1867-1917) and was built not long after he purchased the property in 1898. Strong was a mail agent on the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. He married Cornelia E. Goff in 1885 and the couple had two daughters, who sold the house to descendants of bell manufacturer N. N. Hill in 1942.
In 1888, Henry Gildersleeve, Jr. (1858-1944) erected a grand Victorian-era residence at 624 Main Street in Portland, across the street from the 1853 house erected by his father, the prominent shipbuilder Henry Gildersleeve, Sr. (1817-1894). The career of Henry Gildersleeve, Jr. is described in Gildersleeves of Gildersleeve, Conn. and the Descendants of Philip Gildersleeve, by Willard Harvey Gildersleeve:
Henry Gildersleeve, Jr., graduated in 1875 from Middletown High School and received the degree of B. A, from Wesleyan University in 1879 where he was a member of the football team and of the baseball team. He was also a member of the "Waverleys," a famous old ball club of Portland. In 1881, he received the degree of LL. B., from Columbia University. He spent his vacations and the following year in Hartford, Ct., in the law office of Judge Hammersley of Connecticut Supreme Court. Shortly after he was admitted to the bar in N. Y. City and entered the law office of Messrs. Huntley & Bower. After another year of constant work and study his health was affected, resulting in a serious attack of brain fever. Recovering from the attack, he took chaise of the schooner "Ruth Robinson," and made a trip with it. He then entered the store of S. Gildersleeve & Sons as clerk and becoming interested, was made partner in 1885. He was also part owner of the Gildersleeve and Cromwell Ferry. He organized the Gildersleeve Coal Co. in 1885, was notary public and secretary of the Portland Water Co. In 1900 he sold his interest in the store, having been employed by the Tonawanda Iron & Steel Co., of Tonawanda, N. Y,, on their whaleback steamers. In 1901 he sold the large mansion which he built in 1888 at 624 Main street, Gildersleeve, Ct., to his brother, Oliver, and after working in the Gildersleeve shipyard until 1907, devoted his attention to tobacco raising. Episcopalian. Resides in Gildersleeve, Ct.
The house was later the residence of Oliver’s son Walter Gildersleeve (1874-1949).
According to the nomination for the Charter Oak Place National Historic District, the house at 16 Charter Oak Place in Hartford was erected in 1894 for Philemon Robbins, a furniture manufacturer, but Robbins had passed away in 1890. In the 1830s he was a partner with Isaac Wright and Joseph Winship in Isaac Wright & Company, one of Hartford’s leading furniture companies. After Wright’s death in 1838 his partners formed Robbins & Winship, which became Robbins Brothers in 1878.
The house’s first story is brick, with its upper two stories being shingled. There is a Palladian window in the upper story’s triangular gable.
The ninth chimney fire was added to the fire department list yesterday, when the headquarters chemical company answered a telephone call just after noon to the house of Mananger Norman McD. Crawford of the street railway, at No: 16 Charter Oak Place. The chimney burned Itself out and no damage was done.
Hartford Courant, February 14, 1901
The neighborhood of Broad Brook in the town of East Windsor was once a mill village for the Broad Brook Company, which manufactured textiles from 1849 to 1854. In 1892 the company erected the building at the corner of Main and Depot Streets, next to the Broad Brook Dam. The building had a company salesroom and shipping department on the first floor and a public hall, called the opera house, on the top floor which was used for community events. After the company moved its departments out in 1920 the first floor was used for retail stores. The Opera House on the second floor continues to host live shows today.
Listed in the Mechanic Street Historic District as the Freestone House, the residence at 27 Lester Avenue in Pawcatuck was built in 1900.
The building at 5 Ives Street in Danbury was built in 1883-1884 and served as the city’s Fire Department Headquarters until 1969. Designed by architect Joel Foster, it had vehicle storage on the first floor and parlors (later converted into sleeping quarters) for volunteer fire companies on the second floor. Today the building is home to Two Steps Downtown Grill. Next door (pictured on the right in the image above) is the building at 1 Ives Street. Designed by William Webb Sunderland, it was built in 1893 as a meat warehouse and offices.
According to the nomination for the Mechanic Street Historic District in Stonington, the house at 117 West Broad Street in Pawcatuck is known as the George Greenman House. This George Greenman must have been related to the Greenman family of shipbuilders in Mystic and Westerly. In 1827 Silas Greenman, 3rd had joined with his brother George in a ship-building business in Mystic, but he moved to Westerly, Rhode Island (adjacent to Pawcatuck) in 1834. George continued shipbuilding in Mystic, partnering with his brothers, Clark and Thomas. Silas established a shipyard in Westerly called Silas Greenman & Company. He was later joined by his son, George S. Greenman, born in 1826. Could the owner of the house at 117 West Broad Street have been a grandson or other relative?
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