William H. Cardwell House (1880)

The house at 313 Main Street in Norwich, next to the Buckingham House, is a well-preserved example of the French Second Empire style. It was built for William H. Cardwell, a grocer, in 1880, a date that can be ascertained from the following sentence in Biographical Review Containing Life Sketches of Leading Citizens of New London County Connecticut (1898), “The family live in the large brick residence, 313 Main Street, which was built by Mr. Cardwell eighteen years ago. As described in The Leading Business Men of Norwich and Vicinity, Embracing Greeneville and Preston (1890):

Were we asked to name half a dozen of the most prominent grocery houses in this section of the State, one of the first enterprises we would mention would be that conducted by Mr. W. H. Cardwell, for this was inaugurated fully thirty years ago and has long been looked upon as a representative undertaking of its kind, both as regards the methods employed in its management and its exceptional popularity throughout the community. The proprietor is a native of Montville, Conn., and has been identified with his present business since 1859, originally as a member of the firm of Cardwell & Tracy, later as Cardwell & Wait, and since 1883 as sole owner. He certainly needs no introduction to our Norwich readers, and his enterprising business methods have made him known by reputation at least, throughout this vicinity. The premises utilized are located at Nos. 3 to 9 Market street, and are so spacious as to admit of the carrying of an immense stock, composed of fancy and staple groceries in almost endless variety. This stock is as exceptional in quality as it is in magnitude, and it is generally conceded among consumers that goods obtained at this establishment are sure to prove entirely satisfactory. Mr. Cardwell does both a wholesale and retail business and is prepared to fill the most extensive orders without delay and at positively the lowest market rates. He employs four experienced and efficient assistants and every facility is at hand to ensure the prompt handling of goods.

His store was located in the Rockwell Building in downtown Norwich (featured in yesterday’s post). The Cardwell family owned the house into the twentieth century. Today, it is a halfway house for men run by the Southeastern Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc.

Arbus Block (1893)

Jacob Arbus was a furrier in Rockville. In 1886 he established his own store, doing business at various locations until 1893, when he had a Mansard-roofed building constructed at 74 Union Street to serve as his store and residence. On an 1895 Bird’s-eye view of Rockville, the Arbus Block is listed as “63. Jacob Arbus, Furrier, Hats, Caps and Gents Furnishing Goods.”

Dr. Frederick Gilnack House (1890)

The house of Dr. Frederick Gilnack, at 19 Elm Street in Rockville (Vernon), constructed in 1890, is a quite late example of a Second Empire house. The mansard roof had been popular some decades before, but the house’s Eastlake style ornamentation places the it stylistically in the later nineteenth century. Dr. Gilnack was born in Saxony in Germany in 1844. His family came to America when he was ten and settled in Glastonbury. He was honored by Dr. Eli P. Flint in Proceedings of the Connecticut State Medical Society (1917), who gave an account of his life:

He was graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the School of Medicine of Columbia University, New York, March 14, 1867, and only three months later, in June, he located in Rockville, Connecticut, for the practice of his profession, which he continued there successfully, for forty-five years, until failing health obliged him to give it up.

He was especially successful as an obstetrician, and the loss of sleep and other exacting requirements which that class of practice necessitates, so lowered his vitality mentally and physically that he became unable to perform the duties of his profession for fiveyears, until an attack of epidemic influenza proved quickly fatal [in 1917].

Glover-Budd House (1869)

At 50 Main Street in Newtown is an 1869 mansard-roofed Second Empire-style house built in 1869 for Henry Beers Glover. He was a successful businessman and, in 1855, he became one of the founders of the Newtown Savings Bank, serving as the bank’s treasurer until his death in 1870, just after the completion of his house. Glover was on the building committee for Trinity Episcopal Church in Newtown and his house may have been designed by Silas N. Beers, a surveyor and mapmaker who was the architect of Trinity Church. Glover’s daughter, Mary B. Glover, married William J. Beecher, an attorney, who later had his office in the Glover House, where they lived. Their daughter, Florence Beecher, married Stephen E. Budd around 1918. After her husband’s death, she continued to live in the Glover House, which became known as the Budd House, until she died in 1977. (more…)

Wallingford Railroad Station (1871)

Another historic Connecticut train station of the 1870s is the Wallingford Railroad Station, built in 1871 by the Hartford & New Haven Railroad on the Springfield Line. With its distinctive Mansard roof and decorative brackets, both elements of the Second Empire style, the Wallingford Station remains a prominent local landmark, located near where Hall and Quinnipiac Avenues intersect with Colony Street. Although the inside of the building has not been open as a station selling tickets since 1991, it remains an active Amtrak station. Owned by the town since 1964, the the station‘s interior was redesigned in the 1970s and the roof and exterior restored in the early 1990s. A number of businesses and organizations have been located in the station over the years. Most recently, it has housed the Wallingford Adult Education Program and the basement has been used by the New Haven Society of Model Engineers. Wallingford is also home to the Peters Rail Road Museum.

The Isaac C. Lewis House (1868)

The Meriden Britannia Company was established in 1852. It produced the durable Britannia ware, which by the 1850s had replaced pewter in most American homes. Isaac C. Lewis was president of the company for fourteen years and served as mayor of Meriden from 1870 to 1872. Lewis built a mansion at 189 East Main Street in 1868. In 1950, the house was purchased by the Polish League of American Veterans and was used as a funeral home from 1998 to 2006. The house has since been vacant.

Hotel Capitol (1875)

A block south on Main Street in Hartford from the Linden, on the corner of Capitol Avenue across from the Butler-McCook House, is another building, which like the Linden has a distinctive tower. The Hotel Capitol was built in 1875 by John W. Gilbert The building combines elements of the High Victorian Gothic and Second Empire styles. Isidore Wise operated it as residential hotel after he acquired it in 1905.