Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Vernacular

Powers-Allyn-Rosenthal House (1877)

Atypical for Connecticut, the house at 75 Rope Ferry Road in Waterford (pdf) was constructed of granite ashlar blocks. The stone was quarried in Waterford. Known as the Stone House and the Powers-Allyn-Rosenthal House, it was built in 1877 (date on the cornerstone), although the wing may be earlier. A later resident of the house was Beatrice Holt Rosenthal (1900-1981). Active in support of women’s rights, Rosenthal was a delegate to Democratic National Convention from Connecticut in 1956 and 1960 and a Democratic National Committeewoman in 1963.

Joseph S. Williams House (1899)

A sign on the house (now used as a real estate office) at 62 Greenmanville Avenue in Mystic (in Stonington) indicates that it was the home of Joseph S. Williams, yeoman, and was built in 1899. Joseph S. Williams was no doubt related to Joseph Stanton Williams, whose farm once dominated the eastern side of Greenmanville Avenue. In the 1890s, the farm was developed into an industrial area. The old Joseph S. Williams farmhouse, which stood on the hill east of what is now Mystic Seaport, later fell into disrepair and was burned in the 1950s.

Old West School, West Hartford (1878)

At 87 Mountain Road (corner of Buena Vista Road) in West Hartford is the town’s oldest extant schoolhouse, a brick structure known as the Old West School. Since 1936, the former school has been occupied by the West Hartford Art League, which purchased the building from the town in 1965 on the condition that it be preserved and used exclusively for non-profit cultural and educational purposes.

Powder Magazine, Fort Griswold (1843)

At Fort Griswold Battlefield State Park in Groton is a powder magazine. It was built in 1843 and served the fort‘s nineteenth-century river battery. The battery was paired with a larger one across the Thames River at Fort Trumbull.

Dutchland Farms Windmill (1932)

When the Lord & Taylor at Bishops Corner in West Hartford (later a Caldors and now the location of Marshalls and other stoes) was built in the early 1950s, it replaced the Dutchland Farms restaurant and ice cream shop (which by then was known as Dutchland City). The restaurant’s building was notable for the prominent windmill above its front entrance. The building was taken down, but the windmill survives. An article in the Hartford Courant of July 13, 1952 (“Bishop’s Corners Windmill Moved To Pool At Nursery”) describes how the seven ton windmill was removed from atop the building and transported to its current home at Gledhill Nursery, 660 Mountain Road in West Hartford. The article notes that the windmill had been a familiar site for 20 years, so it would have been built c. 1932. Dutchland Farms was a chain and some of its other restaurants also featured ornamental windmills of various sizes.

Burnham Blacksmith Shop (1850)

In Martin Park in East Hartford the town’s Historical Society maintains a complex of three historic buildings. One of these is the Burnham Blacksmith Shop, built c. 1850, which originally stood on the Burnham family farm. Today, the building contains a collection of nineteenth and early twentieth century tools and equipment used in the East Hartford area.

Asahel Strong House (1830)

Asahel Strong (1781-1863) was a farmer and a prominent citizen of Durham who served as Justice of the Peace and five terms as a representative in the Connecticut General Assembly. Strong had a Federal-style house on Fowler Avenue, but also had a vernacular house, built c. 1830 on Main Street on parsonage land he leased from the First Ecclesiastical Society of Durham for 999 years (essentially a way for the Society to sell it). Another house built on this parsonage property is the Robinson-Andrews House, located just south of the Strong House. The 1830 house remained in the Strong family until the 1850s.