Judd Carriage House (1887)

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The H.L. Judd Mansion was built on South Main Street in Wallingford in 1887, but the elaborate Victorian home was demolished in the 1930s. The mansion’s carriage house, however, survived and was moved to the parking lot at the rear of the Wallingford Town Hall property. According to Everett Gleason Hill’s A Modern History of New Haven and Eastern New Haven County (1918), the Judd Manufacturing Company was organized in New Haven in 1870 and:

“In 1877 the business was removed to Wallingford, where they erected a large plant and began the manufacture of stationers’ and druggists’ hardware. The principal stockholders were Morton Judd and his three sons, Albert D., Hubert L. and Edward M., Hubert L. acting as the company’s selling agent in New York. About 1870 a branch factory was established in Brooklyn, New York, for the manufacture of upholsterers’ hardware, which in 1884 was incorporated under the name of H. L. Judd & Company. In 1886 H. L. Judd & Company of Brooklyn bought the business and plant of the Judd Manufacturing Company of Wallingford and in 1897 discontinued the Brooklyn plant.”

The H.L. Judd company, which also had a curtain pole factory in Chattanooga, TN, produced various products, including mechanical banks and ink wells.

Wadsworth Stable (1820)

George Washington slept many places, but where did George Washington’s horse sleep? In the Wadsworth Stable in Hartford, which was on the estate of Jeremiah Wadsworth, in whose house Washington, Rochambeau and Governor Trumbull had their first meeting in 1780. The original stable, built in 1730, later burned down. It was rebuilt around 1820 in the Palladian style, unusual for an outbuilding, to suit the pretensions of the Federal era. The stable was probably designed by Daniel Wadsworth, Jeremiah Wadsworth’s son. In 1842, the Wadsworth House was moved to a new location (it was torn down in 1887) when the Wadsworth Atheneum was constructed. The stable, which was owned for a time by the Hartford Public Library, remained on its original site, adjacent to the Atheneum, until 1954, when it was saved from demolition and moved to Lebanon. Its original location is now the Travelers Tower plaza. The new home of the Wadsworth Stable was provided by the Connecticut DAR and is adjacent to the Governor Jonathan Trumbull House. A plaque on the stable recognizes the generosity of Katharine Seymour Day, who also established what is now the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, for the restoration of the building.

Mark Twain Carriage House (1874)

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Adjacent to the Mark Twain House in Hartford is the Clemens family’s Carriage House, also built in 1874. Like the High Victorian Gothic Twain House, designed by Edward Tuckerman Potter, the Carriage House features architectural details in the Stick style. In the second floor rooms, above where the horses and carriages were kept, Mark Twain’s coachman, Patrick McAleer, lived with his wife and seven children. McAleer served Mark Twain in various homes he lived in, from 1870-1891 and 1905-1906.

Chamberlin Carriage House (1871)

Franklin Chamberlin was a Hartford lawyer who was also involved in the development of the city’s Nook Farm neighborhood in the nineteenth century. Probably as an investment, he built the house on Forrest Street in 1871 that was purchased by Harriet Beecher Stowe two years later. Around the same time, he sold the adjacent land nearby to Mark Twain to build his house. Finally, in 1884, Chamberlin built as his residence the house on Forrest Street, now known as the Katharine Seymour Day House. Earlier, in 1871, Chamberlin built the carriage house, adjacent to the Stowe and Day houses, that is now used as the Visitor Center of the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center. On the east elevation of the building, Chamberlin’s initials, are carved in brownstone above the side entrance. (more…)

Holbrook Carriage House (1865)

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Update: This Carriage House was demolished in January 2010 after the roof collapsed from heavy snow.

The Caleb M. Holbrook House once stood at the corner of Farmington Avenue and Gillett Street in Hartford. Built in 1865, the Second Empire style house was later torn down, but Holbrook’s carriage house remains on Gillett Street. Below is the intersection where the house once stood as it appears today (also note that the current apartment building is in the Mission Revival style):

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For more on the loss of this building: (more…)