George A. Fairfield House (1866)

georgeafairfieldhouse.JPG

George A. Fairfield was a prominent leader in Hartford’s industrial growth after the Civil War. He was president of the Weed Sewing Machine Company and the Hartford Machine Screw Company. Fairfield Avenue was named for him and in 1866 he built an imposing Second Empire style mansion there. The house features many extravagant elements, including an medieval-style octagonal tower to the rear. The house is now subdivided into condominiums. The Oliver H. Easton House, another striking Second Empire home, is located across the street.

Cheney Hall (1866)

cheneyhall.JPG

The Cheney Brothers Silk Manufacturing Company flourished in Manchester in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Nineteenth century mill village complexs, which included housing for workers, also featured entertainment venues for the community. Built in 1866, as a theater and cultural center, Cheney Hall was designed by the Boston artist and architect C. H. Hammatt Billings, who had also created the original illustrations for Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Over the years , audiences at Cheney Hall would see theatrical performances, boxing matches, high school graduations, and many famous speakers, including Horace Greeley (who had dedicated the building in 1867), Mark Twain, Susan B. Anthony, Henry Ward Beecher, Grover Cleveland and William H. Taft. The building was used as a hospital during the 1918 flu pandemic. Used as a fabric salesroom from 1925 to 1976, the building was then in bad condition, but was saved from demolition when the Cheney Brothers National Historic Landmark District was created in 1978. Restored in 1991, Cheney Hall today hosts performances of the Little Theatre of Manchester and is available for rentals.

Hale-Goodrich House (1876)

francesehale1876.JPG

The 1876, Second Empire-style Frances E. Hale House, on Main Street in Glastonbury, looks like an appropriate house to post on Halloween!

This is also an appropriate day to announce the start of a new companion blog to Historic Buildings of Connecticut called Historic Gravestones of Souther New England! It will not be updated quite as frequently as this blog is, but please check it out!

Also, this blog is now six months old! To celebrate, I have added a poll. Please vote! (Poll now closed).

Edit (5/27/08): The house replaced the earlier home of Timothy Hale, later occupied by his son, Atwater Hale. After Atwater’s death in 1874, his widow Frances had this house built and invited her daughter, Deborah and son-in-law, John Q. Goodrich, to move in and help run the family tobacco farm.

Robinson-Smith House (1864)

robinson-smith.JPG

Built in 1864, on Charter Oak Place in Hartford, the Robinson-Smith house was occupied simultaneously by the families of two flour merchants, who were business partners of Charles Northam, Charles Robinson and James Smith. The house is quite extravagant for a double house and features aspects of different revival styles, including an Italianate cupola and a Second Empire mansard roof. The house’s original symmetricality has been altered by the additions on the left side (south elevation).

Silas W. Robbins House (1873)

silas-robbins-house.JPG

Silas Webster Robbins, a partner in the seed business, Johnson, Robbins and Co., built an impressive Second Empire style mansion on Broad Street Green in Wethersfield in 1873. Damaged by fire in 1996, the home was purchased in 2001 by new owners, who have restored it. The Silas W. Robbins House will open as a bed-and-breakfast on November 1, and a number of gala events are planned for this month, including daily house tours, Oct. 6-Oct. 14, to benefit the Keane Foundation.