Among the buildings designed by Theodate Pope Riddle for Avon Old Farms school was an Estate Manager’s House. Located near the Water Tower, Forge and Chapel, the cottage was built c. 1922-1923. With its half-timbering and brick nogging, it resembles the traditional English houses of Sussex and Surrey. It is now known as the Gate House. (more…)
The Capewell Horse Nail Company was founded in 1881 by George Capewell, who invented an improved machine for making horseshoe nails. Located next to the old Capewell factory in Hartford is the company’s office building (60 Popieluszko Court, formerly Governor Street), built around 1900. Designed by an unknown architect, the office building features an elaborate brick, brownstone and terra-cotta façade.
Lucerne is the name of the castle-like mansion at 20 Davis Street in Hamden. Designed by the architects Brown and Von Beren, it was built in 1906 for Frederick D. Grave. A German immigrant who arrived in America in 1861, Grave learned the cigar trade and in 1884 founded his own company in New Haven. Still in business, the company has been known since 1911 as F.D. Grave & Son. The mansion is now home to the architectural offices of Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates.
At 330 Main Street in the village of Hanover in the town of Sprague is a Craftsman-style American Foursquare house. It was constructed in 1913 by builder Peck McWilliams. The house was a wedding gift for William Park (1889-1971) from his father, mill-owner Angus Park, at the time of William’s marriage to Ruth Standish. The William Park House has stuccoed walls with Tudor-style decorative half-timbering and a porte-cochere on the north side.
Born in Galashiels, Scotland, Angus Park (1859-1929) emigrated with his family to Canada, where over twenty years he grew successful in the wool textile industry. As related in Men of Mark in Connecticut, Vol. V (1910):
He was employed there until 1894, when he came to East Lyme, Connecticut, and became secretary of the Niantic Manufacturing Company, being associated with an uncle, D. E. Campbell, and with a brother, William Park. He remained there until August, 1899, when he severed his connection with that concern and purchased the Allen Mill and properties at Hanover, Connecticut, which property is now known as the Airlie Mills. This mill had been closed for some time, and consequently was in poor condition. Mr. Park remodeled the mill and installed new and modern machinery at a great outlay of money. The mill is now one of the best in this region, and the product is a high grade of woolen and flannel suiting. In March, 1903, when the Assawauga Company, of Dayville, Connecticut, was organized Mr. Park became its manager, and one of its largest stockholders. In 1907, Mr. Park purchased the properties of the Crosby Manufacturing Company, at East Glastonbury, Connecticut, and organized the Angus Park Manufacturing Company, of which he is the treasurer and general manager.
The Park family woolen company prospered under the direction of Angus Park and then under his son William Park. The company continued in business until 1973.
At 60 Elm Street in Hartford, adjoining Bushnell Park, is a building known as the Pump House. A pumping station, it is part of the Connecticut River Flood Control Project, which helps the now underground Park River‘s waters reach the Connecticut River. The Pump House was constructed in 1947 by the Army Corps of Engineers using stones salvaged from bridges that once crossed the Park River. Today the Pump House also contains a public art gallery.
Commodore Thomas Macdonough was a Naval hero of the War of 1812 who defeated the British at the Battle of Lake Champlain in 1814. Earlier in the war he had overseen the construction of gunboats in Middletown and after the war made his home in the city. At 66 Spring Street in Middletown is the Commodore Macdonough Elementary School, which was built in 1924 and dedicated in 1925.
Frank T. Simpson helped lead Connecticut’s first civil rights organization. Born in Alabama in 1907, he moved to Hartford in 1929. Active in social work, in 1944 he became the first employee of the Connecticut Inter-Racial Commission, now the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities. Simpson eventually became executive secretary and worked to end discrimination. In 1952, Dr. Simpson purchased a 1912-13 Tudor Revival house at 27 Keney Terrace in Hartford. He lived there until his death in 1974. The Waverly School, at 55 Waverly Street in Hartford, was renamed the Dr. Frank T. Simpson-Waverly School in his honor.