Mather Homestead (1840)

The Mather Homestead is a former Greek Revival farmhouse in Hartford’s North End, built sometime between 1835 and 1843. Changes to the house over the years illustrate the many demographic changes that have occurred in the surrounding neighborhood. The house was constructed by William Mather, a prosperous Yankee farmer, and continued as a residence until 1926. The house faces Mahl Avenue (the address is 2 Mahl Avenue), but originally had a Main Street address, because Mahl Avenue was not opened until 1893. At that time, developer Frederick Mahl bought the Mather farm and subdivided it. Starting in 1887, the Mather house was rented by Charles Skinner, an insurance clerk, who bought the house in 1898. In 1916, the Skinner family sold the house to a Jewish family.

Significant structural changes began for the Mather Homestead in 1926, when it was converted for use as a synagogue. The alterations were undertaken by two Orthodox congregations, Teferes Israel and Chevre Kadishe, which had merged in 1926. Both congregations had been founded by Russian immigrants: members of Teferes Israel came from Ludmir (now in Ukraine) and members of Chevre Kadishe from Wolkowysk (now in Belarus). Among other changes, a rounded projection on the east (Main Street) side of the building was added for an ark to hold Torah scrolls. The Mahl Street side of the building originally had a Greek Revival columned porch on the first floor and a second porch was added above it on the second floor in 1926. Known as the Mahl Avenue Shul, Teferes Israel later moved to Bloomfield and, in 1993, merged with Beth David in West Hartford.

In 1954, the building was acquired by an African American Masonic Temple, Excelsior Lodge No. 3. Founded in 1856 by a group of Prince Hall Masons, Excelsior Lodge has included among its members many leaders of Hartford’s black community. For many decades, the exterior was left unaltered, but the columned porches have since been removed and replaced by an enclosed entry addition on the fist-floor.

Robert Schutz House (1907)

Prospect Avenue forms a border between Hartford and West Hartford. My new book, A Guide to Historic Hartford, Connecticut, features some interesting houses on the West Hartford side of the street, including the Robert Schutz House at 1075 Prospect Avenue. Unlike other residences nearby, this house is turned 90 degrees from the street. Built in 1907 and designed by Charles Adams Platt, the house was built for Robert Schutz, president of the Smyth Manufacturing Company, which still makes bookbinding machines today. The house was also the residence of his son, Robert Schutz Jr., who was an architect. As a trustee and president of the Mark Twain Memorial in the 1950s, Robert Schutz Jr. donated objects he found in the attic of this house to what is now the Mark Twain House and Museum.

Linus B. Plimpton House (1884)

Designed by architect John C. Mead and built in 1884, the Romanesque-style Linus B. Plimpton House is located at 847 Asylum Street in the Asylum Hill neighborhood of Hartford. In 1865, Linus B. Plimpton (who was originally from Southridge, MA) established a business in Hartford manufacturing envelopes. The Plimpton Manufacturing Company won an important contract in 1874 to produce stamped envelops for the U.S. government. The prize was awarded by Postmaster General Marshall Jewell, a Hartford resident and former governor of Connecticut. The modern descendant of the old manufacturing firm continues to exist as Plimpton’s, a stationery retail store in West Hartford Center. The old Plimpton House on Asylum Avenue is now used for elderly housing. For further reading on the Plimpton Manufacturing Company, see the following pdf files: The History of Envelopes and “A Specialized Study of the Plimpton Manufacturing Co., Hartford, Connecticut High Value U.S. Postal Stationer.”

Boce W. Barlow Jr. House (1926)

At 31 Canterbury Street in Hartford is a house featured in Tour 8 of my new book, A Guide to Historic Hartford, Connecticut. Built in 1926, it was later the home of Boce W. Barlow, Jr. (1915-2005), the first African-American in the Connecticut judiciary, being appointed judge of Hartford’s municipal court in 1957 and, later, a hearing examiner for Connecticut’s Civil Rights Commission. He also became Connecticut’s first African American state senator when he was elected in 1966. When Barlow and his wife, Catherine Swanson Barlow, first moved to the house in 1958, they were Canterbury Street’s first black family. Born in Americus, Georgia, in 1915, Boce W. Barlow, Jr. moved to Connecticut with his family the following year. He graduated from Hartford Public High School in 1933 and went on to attend Howard University and Harvard Law School. Boce Barlow Way, a street in Hartford, was named in his honor in 1987.

Haley Manors (1898)

In 1981-1982, three nineteenth-century buildings on Capen Street in Hartford, each with 6-units, were converted into cooperatively-owned housing and named “Haley Manors” after Alex Haley, the author of Roots. The property for the project was donated by Rev. Dr. Lincoln J. Davis Sr., founder and President of Lincoln Enterprises, one of the first minority-owned business development corporations in Hartford. Two of the buildings, at 42-44 Capen Street (see image above) and 46-48 Capen Street (see image below), are wood-frame structures that follow the same basic plan with different decorative details on each building. They were built in 1898 by Henry D. Ely. The third building, located at 36-38 Capen Street (see image below), is a brick Italianate, built around 1875. These buildings are mentioned in Tour 8 in my new book, A Guide to Historic Hartford, Connecticut. (more…)

Thomas-Bradstreet House (1838)

Born in Wolcott in 1785, Seth Thomas first worked in the clock business under Eli Terry and later purchased Terry’s clock-making business in 1810. Thomas moved to Plymouth Hollow (later named Thomaston in his honor) in 1813 and founded the famous Seth Thomas Clock Company, which continued in business until the 1980s. In 1838, Seth Thomas purchased the house at 237 Main Street in Thomaston from Marvin Blakeslee. It had probably been built in about 1825 and is the only remaining of the five houses owned by the Thomas family on Main Street. In 1850, Thomas sold it to his daughter, Amanda Thomas Bradstreet, whose husband, Thomas Jefferson Bradstreet, was a descendant of the Puritan poet, Anne Bradstreet. The house remained in the family until the death of Miss Edith Bradstreet Mather in 2004. The following year, the Town of Thomaston bought the property from her surviving sister, Clara-Louise Mather Riggs. The Thomas-Bradstreet House, restored by the Thomaston Historical Commission, is now a house museum open to the public.