First Baptist Church of Wallingford (1870)

The Baptist church in Wallingford begun as a branch of the Waterford Baptist church in 1731 and was organized as the Third Baptist Church in Connecticut in 1735 and then the First Baptist Church of Wallingford in 1786. The church used a dwelling house in Meriden (then a part of Wallingford) as a house of worship starting in 1801. After Meriden became a separate town, the Wallingford members established their own church in Wallingford and built a meeting house in 1821. After the church burned down in 1869, the current church was constructed and dedicated in 1870. Located at 114 North Main Street, it is a brick building in the Romanesque Revival style.

St. Paul’s Universalist Church (1893)

A Universalist Society in Meriden was formed in 1854 and was formally organized in 1863. The Society’s first church building was constructed in 1860. This wooden structure fronted Norwood Street, but was moved to the northeast corner of Norwood and Liberty Streets when construction of a new church was begun in 1891. Completed in 1893 as St. Paul’s Universalist Church, it later became the Unitarian Universalist Church of Meriden. In 2002, with a dwindling membership and the prohibitive costs of maintaining the Richardsonian Romanesque church, the congregation sold the building to two partners who wanted to transform it into a rock and comedy club. When that project fell through, the church was put on the market again and one of its stained-glass windows, made by Louis Comfort Tiffany, was put on auction. In 2007, the church was sold to a Pentecostal congregation, the Holy Word Foundation Ministries. In 2005, alterations were completed on the Unitarian Universalist Church of Meriden‘s new home in a former house at 328 Paddock Avenue.

J.R. Montgomery Company (1905)

As detailed in the Nineteenth Annual Report of the State of Connecticut’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (1903):

The firm of J. R. Montgomery & Co. [in Windsor Locks] was established in 1871, for the purpose of manufacturing cotton warps used in satinets and union cassimeres. The firm was composed of J. R. Montgomery as the active partner, with two others who constituted the partnership. A few years after the outside interests were bought by J. R. Montgomery, who continued the business under the old firm name, until in 1885. George M. Montgomery was admitted into the business as an active partner, and the line of manufacture was enlarged, taking up the making of novelty yarns, which was a new and unique line of manufacture. […]

In 1891, the firm of J. R. Montgomery & Co. was merged into a corporation under the name of The J. R. Montgomery Co., of which J. R. Montgomery, President, and George M. Montgomery, Vice-President and Secretary, are the active managers. A new cotton warp mill and an addition to the Novelty Mill was built. The capital of $350,000 was invested in enlarging and increasing the scope of its business.

The first Warp Mill was expanded in 1904-1905, as described in Fibre and Fabric: A Record of Progress in American Textile Industries, Vol. XLL, No. 1054, May 13, 1905:

The machinery of the new factory of the J. R Montgomery Company is gradually being put into operation as fast as the various processes involved will allow. The completion of this building, states the Windsor Locks Journal, marks a new epoch in the prosperity of the town. Standing on the canal bank with its five stories beside the basement, and its frontage of 173 feet, it presents a handsome and imposing appearance. Its width is 63 feet, and it is so built as to connect with and open into the former five story building on the north, making a frontage of 248 feet. The designer is Fred. S. Hines of Boston and the contractors C. H. Hathaway & Co., of Providence, R. I. The work was begun early last Spring and has continued without interruption or accident. In its construction and equipment it embodies all the latest improvements in every feature, as regards fire proofing, heating, lighting, the distribution of power, etc.

All the power and lighting in the new mill is supplied by electricity, and the electrical plant is one of the most complete in this section of the country. The cotton machinery is all new and of modern construction for the manufacture of high grade yarns and warps. A combing plant has been installed for making a higher grade of work than heretofore attempted in that line. It is the intention of the company to continue along the same lines as in the past, but to improve the quality of the output, and to add to its reputation for high grade goods.

In the 1890s, the company began producing tinsel products, eventually becoming the country’s largest manufacturer of decorative and electric tinsels. In 1920, the Montgomery Company purchased the adjacent Anchor Mills Paper Company building, razing it and building a new white reinforced concrete building, which extended southwards from the 1891/1905 structure. The Montgomery Company ended its operations in Windsor Locks in 1989 and the factory buildings have since remained vacant, suffering fires in 2006, 2009 and again earlier this year. Since 2009, the Town of Windsor Locks has been attempting to foreclose on the now burned-out buildings.

2019 Update: The old factory buildings are currently being repurposed as apartment housing.

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Emanuel Synagogue (1927)

Formed in 1919, Emanuel Synagogue in Hartford was Connecticut’s first Conservative congregation. In 1920, members dedicated its first synagogue in the former North Methodist Church on Main Street. With a growing membership, the congregation purchased farmland on Woodland Street in Hartford’s Upper Albany neighborhood. A new synagogue, designed by Ebbets and Frid, was completed in 1927. Emanuel Synagogue’s cemetery is located on Jordan Lane in Wethersfield. By the 1950s, with many Emanuel members having moved to West Hartford, the synagogue purchased land on Mohegan Drive and built a social hall and religious school there in 1959. Services continued to be held at Woodland Street until 1968. A new Emanuel Synagogue was completed on Mohegan Drive in 1970. The former Hartford synagogue is now Faith Seventh Day Adventist Church.

Pierpont Block (1893)

The Pierpont Block, on Howe Avenue in Shelton, is an impressively large Richardsonian Romanesque building, built in 1893. It was named for J. P. Morgan, one of the structure’s original investors. The Pierpont Block once contained Arcanum Hall, a hall for public gatherings, and also the public library, before it moved to a new building in 1894. The Pierpont Block was restored (pdf) in the early 1980s.

Plumb Memorial Library (1894)

David Wells Plumb was a successful manufacturer in Birmingham (Derby) and Ansonia, who later settled in Shelton. In 1892, he led a committee of citizens which established a free public library, which opened the following year on the second floor of the Pierpont Block. D.W. Plumb then planned to erect a dedicated library building, but died before he could undertake the project or include funds for it in his will. His brother Horace, a Bridgeport businessman, decided to honor his brother’s wishes and financed the building of the library. Named the Plumb Memorial Library in honor of his brother, it was completed in 1894 on land donated by Plumb’s widow, Louise, next to their family home. The architect for the Richardsonian Romanesque structure was Charles T. Beardsley, Jr. of Bridgeport. A modern addition to the library was constructed in 1974.

Memorial Hall, Windsor Locks (1890)

Memorial Hall in Windsor Locks was dedicated in 1890 in honor of the town’s Civil War veterans. Funds for the building‘s construction were provided by Charles E. Chaffee, a textile manufacturer. Soldiers Memorial Hall originally housed the J.H. Converse Post, No. 67, Grand Army of the Republic. The Post, formed in 1884, was named for Major Joseph H. Converse, who was killed in action at the Battle of Cold Harbor, on June 4, 1864. Memorial Hall was designed by Frederick S. Newman in the Richardsonian Romanesque style (Newman also designed the Linden apartments in Hartford and the Chicopee Bank in Springfield) The museum inside the Hall now honors Windsor Locks veterans of all wars and the building hosts the town’s American Legion post. Memorial Hall is open to visitors by guided tour. (more…)