Masonic Hall, Old Saybrook (1830)

The building at 52 Old Post Road in Old Saybrook was built in the 1830s and began as a one-story carpenters workshop used by the builders of the First Church of Christ on Main Street. When the church was completed, the building was moved from the town green to a site on Old Boston Post Road and a second story was added. For a time, Frederick Kirtland had a shoe store in the building. In its second location, the building stood east of where Thomas C. Acton would build a library in 1873. Acton, who had bought the house across the street, also acquired the former church workshop in 1870 and at some point thereafter it was moved to its current location west of the library. In 1903, Acton rented the building to the Masons of Siloam Lodge No. 32. In December, 1907 he sold the building and it was formally purchased by the Masons in February, 1908. The facade of the Masonic Hall has been altered over the years. In the early twentieth century, there was little decoration, but at some point afterwards it was elaborately ornamented with pilasters, dentil moldings and a fan light in the gable. Most of this ornamentation has since been removed (the street number was also changed from 50 to 52). In 2005, Siloam Lodge No. 32 merged with Trinity-Mt. Olive Lodge No. 43 and Pythagoras Lodge No. 45 to form Estuary Lodge No. 43.

Abijah Catlin III House (1795)

The crossroads at the intersection of Burlington, Harmony Hill, and Locust Roads in Harwinton is known as Catlin’s Corners after the family that developed the area in the eighteenth century. In 1739, shortly after Harwinton became a town, land at the intersection had been granted to Abijah Catlin I (1715-1778), whose son, Abijah Catlin II (1747-1813), constructed a house at 1 Harmony Hill Road in 1760. Abijah kept a tavern in the house and also had an adjacent store. In 1795, he built a house for his son, Abijah Catlin III (1779-1836), across the street at 131 Burlington Road. Like his father, Abijah Catlin III was a merchant and farmer. He also manufactured hats, which he sold in the Catlin store. Catlin’s son, Abijah Catlin IV (1805-1891), was a lawyer and served in the state legislature. The house‘s east wing was attached in 1805. It was originally an earlier Catlin farmhouse, built around 1770 on Locust Road. After the wing was moved, another structure, this one dating from before 1739, was also moved from across Locust Road and attached as a rear ell to the 1770 wing. Further additions were made to the house in the twentieth century.

William Ward IV House (1755)

It is likely that the house at 320 Baileyville Road in Middlefield was erected c. 1755. It is thought to have been built for William Ward IV, a farmer (although he was born in 1767). In the 1740s, Ward’s father, William Ward III (also known as William Ward, Jr.), built a nearly identical house nearby, at 137 Powder Hill Road. In 1862, William Ward IV’s heirs sold the house on Baileyville Road to James O. Ross. The house is now part of Country Flower Farms.

Benjamin Hickok Tavern (1760)

The house at 245 Greenwood Avenue in Bethel is believed to have been built in 1760 by Ebenezer Hickok (1692-1774). It was used as a tavern during the Revolutionary War by his son, Capt. Benjamin Hickcok (1750-1816), a veteran of the war who also owned a store and a gristmill. Benjamin’s son, Eli Hickok (1770-1827), later had his hatter’s shop at the address. By 1899, the owner of the house was George B. Fairchild (1857-1931), a partner in the hat manufacturing firm of Farnam & Fairchild.

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Bakerville Library (1873)

According to the website of the Bakerville Library in New Hartford, the building that houses the library was built in 1834. The building was previously used as the Bakerville School. The volume in Arcadia Publishing’s Images of America series on New Hartford (by Margaret L. Lavoe, 2002) explains that the Bakerville Academy opened in 1873 (replacing an earlier Bakerville schoolhouse on the site) and that research was underway to determine the origin of the building. According to another book published by Arcadia, Connecticut Schoolhouses Through Time (2017), by Melinda K. Elliott, the school was started in 1824 and for a time the upstairs was used by the school and the downstairs was used for meetings and social events. Eventually, both floors would be used as classroom space. Next door was the Bakerville Methodist Church. The church’s horse sheds were attached to the rear of the school building, but they were eventually removed because children would climb out of the second-floor schoolroom onto the shed’s roof. The church burned down in 1954 (a new church was erected in 1960). The school closed when the Bakerville Consolidated School was built in 1941-1942. The Bakerville Library, started in 1949, moved into the former school building in 1951.

Westbrook-Gengras Cottage (1928)

The substantial waterfront summer cottage at 20 Nibang Avenue in the Borough of Fenwick in Old Saybrook was built on a lot acquired in 1928 by Frances Dunham Westbrook and her husband, Stillman Westbrook, Sr. (1888-1943), a senior vice-president at the Aetna Life Insurance Company who oversaw the construction of the Aetna Building on Farmington Avenue in Hartford. He was also the first chairman of the Hartford Housing Authority and Westbrook Village, a housing project that is currently being redeveloped, was named in his honor. In 1948, the cottage was acquired and remodeled by E. Clayton Gengras (1908-1983), who also acquired the Riversea Inn and other properties in the borough. Gengras founded Gengras Motor Cars, which he developed into one of the largest car dealerships in the nation. In recent years, the house has had new owners. You can read more about the cottage in Marion Hepburn Grant’s The Fenwick Story (Connecticut Historical Society, 1974), pages 58-61.

Wallace Hose Company (1895)

Happy Thanksgiving! According to the History of New Haven County, Vol. I (1892), by John L. Rockey, in 1888 Wallingford’s Fire Department “had 64 men, exclusive of its three officers, belonging to the Wallingford Hose Company, No. 1; the Wallace Hose Company, No. 2, with a house on the Plains; and the Simpson Hook and Ladder Company, No. 1.” In 1895, a new Wallace Hose House was erected at 9 South Cherry Street, at the corner of Quinnipiac Street, on land donated by Robert Wallace (1815-1892), a prominent silverware manufacturer. Today the building is used as office space.