Water Tower and Forge, Avon Old Farms School (1922)

Avon Old Farms School, which opened in 1927, is a boarding school for boys founded by Theodate Pope Riddle, Connecticut’s first licensed female architect. She lived at Hill-Stead in Farmington, which she had helped design. Planning for the school’s campus began in 1918 and the land was cleared in 1921. The buildings were modeled after English Cotswold and Tudor styles and utilized traditional English methods. Among the earliest structures to be built were the Water Tower and the Forge, located at the entrance to the campus, whose foundations were laid in 1922. The cylindrical Water Tower is constructed of red sandstone at the base, which melds into similarly-colored brick. Connected to it is the Forge, which has two large chimneys. Constructed of sandstone blocks and brick, it was built as a working forge and provided the metal hardware (hinges, door latches, stair rails, and lanterns) used throughout the campus. The Water Tower contained water until 1976, when cisterns were placed underground. It is now the Ordway Gallery. The Forge was later converted to classroom and meeting space and its exterior has recently been restored.

Francis H. Holmes House (1908)

The Francis H. Holmes House is a residence of eclectic design (primarily Jacobethan, with Craftsman, Shingle and Classical elements) at 349 Rocky Hill Avenue in New Britain. Built in 1906-1908, the house was designed by architect Walter P. Crabtree for Francis H. Holmes, superintendent of the Holmes & Dennis Brick Company. The brick yard, of which Holmes’s father, John W. Holmes was a partner, was located nearby in Berlin, just a few blocks south of the house. The two men were also involved in the creation of the Central Connecticut Brick Company. Fittingly, for the home of a brick manufacturer, the Holmes House features a variety of types of brick. The house once had a porte cochere on the north side. (more…)

Chi Psi Lodge, Wesleyan University (1927)

The Chi Psi fraternity established a chapter at Wesleyan in 1844. Their new fraternity house, built in 1904, was designed in the Colonial Revival style by Raymond F. Almirall, of Brooklyn, NY. It was destroyed in a fire in 1912 and was replaced by a new building, completed in 1927. Wesleyan acquired the property in the 1970s and it continued as a fraternity house until the University converted it into a residence hall around 2002. According to the University, “200 Church Street was established as housing for students who wish to build a safe, self-affirming, energetic, and close-knit community that focuses on social justice and diversity.”

Melancthon W. Jacobus House (1908)

The Melancthon W. Jacobus House is a 1908 Tudor Revival mansion designed by Brocklesby & Smith and located at 39 Woodland Street in Hartford. Melancthon W. Jacobus, Jr. (1855-1957) was dean of the Hartford Theological Seminary and, as Hosmer Professor of New Testament Exegesis, delivered his Inaugural Address, entitled “The Evolution of New Testament Criticism and the Consequent Outlook for To-day,” on October 5, 1892. His father, Melancthon W. Jacobus, Jr. (1816-1876), was a Presbyterian minister and writer and his son, Melancthon W. “Chick” Jacobus (1907-1984) was an English teacher and soccer coach at Kingswood-Oxford School and an author of books on Connecticut River Valley steamboats and Connecticut railroads. The family sold the house during the Great Depression to the Hartford College of Insurance. Today the house is the offices of the Connecticut State University System.

Noah Webster School, Hartford (1900)

The Noah Webster School is an elementary school on Whitney Street in Hartford’s West End. It was named for the famous lexicographer, textbook pioneer, English spelling reformer, political writer, editor, and prolific author, Noah Webster, who was born in West Hartford. The school was designed in the Tudor Revival style by architect William C. Brocklesby. Additions were made to the building in 1906 and 1909 by Brocklesby & Smith, in 1932 by Malmfeldt, Adams & Prentice, and most recently by DuBose Associates as the school was converted into a “MicroSociety Magnet School.”

Eugene L. Cushman House (1920)

Another house in West Hartford’s West Hill Historic District is the house built in 1920 for Eugene L. Cushman. Located at 14 West Hill, it was designed by Cortland F. Luce in the Tudor Revival style. As reported in The Iron Age, Vol. 104, No. 26, December 25, 1919:

Eugene L. Cushman died at his home in West Hartford, Conn., Dec. 18, aged 65 years. Mr. Cushman was chairman of the board of directors of the Cushman Chuck Co., Hartford, Conn., having formerly been president of that organization.

Could this be the father of the house’s first occupant, or did Cushman die before it was completed?