Fishtown Chapel (1889)

The Fishtown Chapel at Mystic Seaport was originally erected by the community of Fishtown in Mystic to serve as a place for Sunday School and prayer meetings in 1889. It took only three weeks to build. For a time around 1900 the Chapel served as a schoolhouse for Groton’s Ninth School District. It then remained unused for many decades until it was moved to Mystic Seaport in 1949. Restored, it was rededicated as a chapel in 1950. As seen in old postcards of the Chapel, it once had a steeple which has since been removed. (more…)

Bidwell Tavern (1880)

The Bidwell Hotel in Coventry was built in 1822 and closed in 1938. The hotel’s Tavern continues in business at 1260 Main Street, not far from the old hotel building. The Bidwell Tavern is located in the former office building of the E. A. Tracy Shoddy Mill. The company, which expanded greatly in the later nineteenth century under the leadership of Eugene A. Tracy, produced shoddy, a recycled wool made by shredding old cloth to be rewoven into a reusable lower-grade product. The mill complex grew to include twenty buildings, but it closed in 1929 and the town of Coventry took ownership of the property. The former office building was used as the Coventry Town Hall from 1934 to 1964. Today, a section of the Bidwell Tavern is an area called “the vault,” where town records were once stored.

C. L. Adams Company (1878)

The store at 47 Main Street South in Woodbury was built in 1878. Starting out as a feed and lumber store run by Nathan Burton, the business changed ownership many times. In 1905 it took the name C. L. Adams Company for Carl L. Adams, one of the store’s owners. Adams sold his part of the business in 1920, but was then paid $60 annually for the continued use of his name. The store has continued as an animal feed and hardware store, operated since 1941 by the Newell family.

Helen Plumb Building (1883)

From 1883 to 1957, the building at 571 Church Hill Road in Trumbull served as the Town Hall. It was Trumbull’s second Town Hall. The first Town Hall, purchased by the Town of Trumbull in 1862, was a building on Daniels Farm Road, formerly known as Beach’s Tavern. Some years ago the old second Town Hall building on Church Hill Road was renovated and it is now used by the Trumbull Chamber of Commerce. The building is named for Helen E. Plumb (1904-2001), who was town clerk in Trumbull for many years. (more…)