Erastus Brainerd, Jr. House (1852)

This is my 2,000 building post on Historic Buildings of Connecticut! Part of the purpose of this blog is to celebrate historic structures so that people won’t be inclined to tear them down. Sometimes, however, great buildings are not maintained and some are in danger of being destroyed. A case in point is the Erastus Brainerd, Jr. House, part of the campus of the former Elmcrest Hospital in Portland, which is slated for demolition. Erastus Brainerd Jr.‘s father established the Brainerd Quarry Company in Portland and owned the Hart/Jarvis House next door (also facing demolition) [see this pdf and this pdf]. The Brainerd House, built around 1852, is particularly notable because it was designed by the great New Haven architect Henry Austin. Pictured in the image above is the house’s grand front entry porch, which has fluted columns on floral urns with ogee arched decorative brackets supporting a balustraded roof. These houses should be saved! (Note this pdf and this pdf)

346 Main Street South, Woodbury (1753)

The house at 346 Main Street South in Woodbury was built between 1751 and 1757, with a larger addition dating to the 1760s. Cyrus Lee, the original owner, operated a tavern in the house and a subsequent owner, Captain Isaac Tomlinson, built an addition which served as an inn and tavern and had a second-floor ball room. Julia Marshall, the next owner, had a bar room on the premises. The use of the house for business purposes continued in the twentieth century and, from the 1940s, it housed antiques shops under several owners. The house has a large addition, with separate living quarters, built in 2000. Today the house is home to The joannajohn Collection.

Governor Thomas M. Waller House (1846)

Next to the William Albertson House, on Vauxhall Street in New London, is a Greek Revival house built by Thomas Fitch in 1846. Fitch was a developer who laid out streets and sold house lots in the Post Hill area of New London. In 1862, Fitch sold his house to Hiram Willey, who served as mayor of New London from 1862 to 1865. Willey sold the property in 1875 to Thomas M. Waller, who also served as mayor (1873-1879) and later as Governor of Connecticut (1883-1884). While Waller owned the house, the front door facing Channing Street was moved to face Vauxhall Street. Further alterations (in the Colonial Revival style) were made to the house in 1913 by Waller’s son, Charles B. Waller.

144 Broad Street, Middletown (1902)

This is the 50th post for Middletown on Historic Buildings of Connecticut! The house at 144 Broad Street in Middletown was built in 1902-1903 as the Rectory of the Church of the Holy Trinity, located on an adjoining lot on Main Street. The first occupant of the house was Reverend Edward Campion Acheson, the church’s eighteenth rector, who was later the Episcopal Bishop of Connecticut. His son, Dean Acheson, later served as U.S. Secretary of State in the Truman administration. The house, designed by H. Hilliard Smith in the Colonial Revival style, was later converted into elderly residential apartments run by St. Luke’s Eldercare Services.

Rev. George Mixter House (1842)

According to A Century of Vernon, Connecticut, 1808-1908 (1911):

The history of the Baptist denomination in the vicinity of Vernon begins as far back as 1842, when at the request of several brethren a meeting was held on April 8 at the home of Thomas King in Ellington “to consult upon the propriety of constituting a Baptist church in said town.” In the afternoon of that day the church was organized, but this organization disbanded in 1845, but before doing so the membership had grown to thirty-two members. Rev. George Mixter was the first pastor.

The same year the church was founded, Rev. Mixter built a Greek Revival house at 113 Main Street in Ellington. As related in The History and Genealogies of Ancient Windsor, Connecticut, Vol. I (1898), by Henry R. Stiles:

Rev. George Mixter was born in Monson, Mass., Jan. 7, 1795. He had no distinctively theological education, but began to preach in Monson and Wilbraham about 1835. He was ordained and settled at Wales, Mass., in 1836, and removed from there early in 1842 to Ellington, where he remained about three years. He afterwards preached at various places in eastern Connecticut till 1862, when he gave up pastoral work on account of failing health, but continued to preach occasionally. He died at Somerville, Conn., Jan. 8, 1879.

The Mixter House once had a Greek Revival entrance portico. In recent years, it was replaced with a Colonial Revival door surround.