The Paul Hamilton House (1916)

Wilfred Griggs designed the Colonial Revival house at 98 Woodlawn Terrace in Waterbury for Paul D. Hamilton. Built in 1916, the house’s side porch was added around 1950. As described in the History of Waterbury and the Naugatuck Valley, Vol. 3 (1918), “Paul D. Hamilton, president and treasurer of the Hamilton Hardware Corporation, is thus widely known as one of the leading and representative business men of Waterbury, where his entire life has been passed and where he has so directed his efforts as to win not only success but the high and merited regard of his fellowmen.”

The Rev. Joseph Whiting House (1835)

Adjacent to northeast of the First Congregational Church of Cheshire is a house built around 1835 (1831-1836) for Rev. Joseph Whiting, who served as the first minister in that church building, from 1827 to 1836. The house was owned by a number of ministers over the years. Arthur Sherriff, headmaster of Cheshire Academy from 1923 to 1966, was a later resident of the house, which was sold to the Congregational Church in 1969. The Greek Revival-style house has a later Colonial Revival porch.

David Williams House (1766)

Built by David Williams, a ship builder, in 1766-1767 (and later expanded), the house at 27 West Avenue in Essex was acquired by Abel Pratt in 1798. According to the 1884 History of Middlesex County,

The manufacture of combs in this country was first begun by Phineas Pratt and his son Abel, about the close of the last century. They were the first inventors of machinery for cutting the teeth upon combs, by which they could be produced so as to compete with English manufacturers. The shop in which they worked stood a few yards west of the site of Pratt’s blacksmith shop, and the first machinery was driven by wind power. Abel Pratt carried on the business during the first years of this century [the nineteenth].

In the later nineteenth century, it was owned by members of the Pratt family connected to the nearby Pratt Smithy, established in 1678 and handed down through ten generations.

The Philip Johnson Brick House (1949)

When architect Philip Johnson designed his famous Glass House, he simultaneously planned an adjacent structure, known as the Brick House. Completed in 1949, a few months before its counterpart, the Brick House served as a guest house, as well as containing the support systems for both buildings. The Brick House was intended to contrast with its glass neighbor, being enclosed by solid walls, although skylights and porthole windows provide much natural light within. Johnson remodeled the interior with a narrow sky-lit corridor in 1953. The Glass House property has been open for tours since 2007, but recently visitors have not been able to enter the Brick House, which requires $3 million in repairs. (more…)