Rockville High School, in Vernon, was founded in 1870. The Old High School building of 1892 was built in Rockville, adjacent to the East School building of 1870. The current High School building, on Loveland Hill Road, was built in 1959. The old High School is now the Vernon Board of Education building.
Once, together with the nearby Polish National Home, at the heart of a vibrant Polish community in Hartford, SS Cyril and Methodius Church still serves Polish-Americans. Built in 1917, on Charter Oak Avenue, the church features elements of the Gothic Revival, Romanesque Revival and High Victorian Gothic styles.
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Built in 1893, on Wethersfield Avenue in Hartford for Mary Borden Munsill, the daughter of Gail Borden, who had invented condensed milk and founded Borden Milk Products. The house has an irregular Queen Anne design, with many elaborate features. The stone arches also reflect the influence of the Richardsonian Romanesque style.
Constructed in 1893, on Main Street in Wethersfield, the Keeney Memorial Cultural Center was originally a public school and later served as a court and a library. In 1985, the building was renovated with support from Mrs. William Keeney, becoming a cultural center named in honor of her son, Robert Allan Keeney, who was lost at age 21, when the U.S.S. Indianapolis was sunk in the final days of World War II. The Center houses the Wethersfield Historical Society.
An excellent example of Richardsonian Romanesque architecture, the Rockville Union Congregational Church in Vernon was begun in 1889 and completed the following year. It represents the union of two congregations: In 1888, the First Congregational Church of Rockville sold its land for the building of the Memorial Hall Building, while the Second Congregational Church building was destroyed in a fire. The two voted to combine and build a new church, constructed of stone and designed by Warren H. Hayes of Minneapolis, on the site where the Second Congregational Church had stood.
Built in 1889-1890 in Rockville (part of Vernon) to serve as the Town Hall, the second floor features a Grand Army of the Republic Hall. It is the longest continuously operated GAR hall and the only one still intact with its original contents in Connecticut. Today it is open to the public as the New England Civil War Museum. The museum displays original stained glass windows and Civil War artifacts, including the Thomas F. Burpee Collection and the Hirst Brothers Collection. Originally planned to be constructed of wood, it was eventually decided to build the Memorial Building in stone, as the nearby Congregational church, which had been made of wood, burned down twice! After the church burned down in 1888, the new Union Congregational Church of 1890 was also built in stone. The Memorial Building was built by GAR veterans, one worker falling to his death during the construction. In Central Park in front of the building is the Cogswell Fountain, donated to the town by the temperance activist Henry D. Cogswell in 1883.
Built in 1876 on Main Street in Hartford for two brothers from the family that owned the Cheney Silk Mills in Manchester. The R. and F. Cheney Building was designed by the famous architect, Henry Hobson Richardson, and represents an early work in his distinctive Richardsonian Romanesque style, later exemplified in the (now gone) Marshall Field’s Wholesale Store, built in Chicago in 1885-1887. The Cheney Block is considered one of Richardson’s greatest buildings and considered by some to be Hartford’s most architecturally significant building. Originally used for retail space on the ground floor, with offices and apartment space above, it later housed Brown Thomson‘s and then G. Fox and Co.‘s Department stores. Today it is known as the Richardson Building and is again used for a mix of office and retail space, including a Residence Inn and the City Steam Brewery Cafe.
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