Richard Brown House (1850)

224 Cornwall Ave., Cheshire

In the nineteenth century, Cheshire became famous for its barite mines. Barite was discovered in Cheshire around 1840 and mining activity continued until 1878. Many miners from Cornwall in England settled in Cheshire to work in the mines. One such miner was Richard Brown, who rented the house at 224 Cornwall Avenue. It was built in the 1850s as an investment property by Edward A. Cornwall, a prominent citizen of Cheshire. Cornwall sold many other parcels of land from the Cornwall Farm, which went back in his family to the 1790s. Richard Brown later purchased the house with a mortgage held by Cornwall. The house was a twin of the residence next door at 214 Cornwall Avenue, which was also a rental property erected by Cornwall. The house at 224 Cornwall has a later Victorian front porch. The large dormer on the west side of the house was added in the late 1970s. (pdf source)

Powers-Allyn-Rosenthal House (1877)

Stone House, Waterford

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)

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)

Old West School

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.

Dutchland Farms Windmill (1932)

Windmill

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.