Copper Ledges (1924)

Copper Ledges is a Colonial Revival mansion in Bristol built in 1924 for Fuller F. Barnes (1887-1955). Barnes expanded the business started in 1857 by his grandfather, Wallace Barnes, who manufactured springs for clocks. Barnes and his brother, Henry, developed the company into the Associated Spring Corporation, which was organized in 1923 with Fuller Barnes as president. Associated Spring, part of the Barnes Group, would become the largest manufacturer of springs in the world.

The mansion stands on a prominent knoll at 60 Founders Drive, just southeast of the intersection of Stearns and Bradley Streets. Designed by local architect Henry Hayden, it was named Copper Ledges because the area is rich in copper. Extending to the south of the house are long formal gardens that end at a swimming pool and a dramatic loggia, erected in 1926. When it was constructed, the mansion was part of a 14-acre estate, which Barnes acquired in 1920. The Barnes family compound included the home of Fuller’s brother Henry Barnes, known as Chimney Crest, and various outbuildings. The estate has since been subdivided. Before he died, Fuller Barnes donated the house to Bristol Hospital, with the plan that it be made a convalescent home. The idea proved unworkable and the two Barnes houses instead became home to Laurel Crest Academy (later Laurel Crest Preparatory School), a private boys’ school, from 1960 to 1970. A girl’s school was added in 1970 and the name was changed to Devonshire-Laurel Crest, but the school closed in 1971. Copper Ledges is now a private residence. (more…)

Congregational Parsonage, Canton Center (1876)

In 1874, Linda Hosford left her property at 210 Cherry Brook Road in Canton to the Ecclesiastical Society of the First Congregational Church for a parsonage. An older house on the land, erected between 1787 and 1813 by Rev. Jeremiah Hallock (1756-1826), was torn down and the current house was built in 1876. The first minister to reside there, in 1877, was Rev. D. B. Hubbard. It is now a private home.

Sacred Heart Catholic Church (1897)

Happy Easter! Sacred Heart Catholic Church, located at 66 Cottage Street in East Berlin, was erected in 1896-1897. At the time, the Catholic population of East Berlin was expanding rapidly, in large part owing to the growth of the Berlin Iron Bridge Company, which required an enlarged labor force. Land for the church was secured on August 12, 1896 for $400 and the cornerstone was laid by Bishop Michael Tierney on November 8, 1896. The plans were drawn by architect Joseph A. Jackson of Water­bury and the building contract was awarded to R.O. Clark of East Berlin. The project was warmly encouraged and supported by the Berlin Bridge Company, whose president, Charles M. Jarvis, contributed $300 toward the construction. The structure was completed at a cost of $7,300. Sacred Heart Church was dedicated on Sunday, May 30, 1897. The church became a full parish in 1967. On March 1, 2017, Sacred Heart Church merged with St. Paul Church in Kensington to form a new St. Paul’s Parish. (more…)

Timothy Hubbard House (1735)

A sign on the house at 136 Middletown Road in Berlin bears the name Timothy Hubbard and the year 1735. The house was long associated with the Bulkley family. About 1825 it was acquired by Colonel William Bulkley (died 1878), who made tinman’s tools (bench shears & snips) and, for a time, spoons in a shop across the street. He had acquired the shop with his brother, Justus, in 1823. As related in Catharine Melinda North’s History of Berlin (1916):

Horse power was used at first and ten men were employed. The tools were forged in this shop, and then were taken to what is known as Risley’s saw mill, to be ground and polished. Justus Bulkeley, who lived in the house east of the shop, died in 1844. His brother William continued the business and, in 1850, put an engine into the factory.

She later records that

After the Bulkeleys sold the Risley mill to Lyman Wilcox, they ground their tinners’ tools and made rotary shears for cutting sheet metal in circles at Blair’s factory.

She also gives the following description:

Mr. Bulkeley was a genial man, full of fun, and a good neighbor—one of the kind who would go out of his way to do a favor. In his day, whenever there was an auction in town, Colonel Bulkeley was called upon to conduct the sale. By his ready wit he made much fun for the people, as he led up to the final “Going, going, gone.”

North Haven Cultural Center (1938)

The North Haven Cultural Center, 27 Broadway in North Haven, was built in 1938 as the North Haven Memorial Library. In 1883, Silas L. Bradley of Auburn, NY, left a bequest to start a library in his home town of North Haven. The Bradley Library Association opened in 1884 in the home of Dr. Austin Lord, where it remained until it moved into the newly constructed Memorial Town Hall in 1887. The library’s name was changed to the North Haven Memorial Library in 1907 to recognize the importance of memorial bequests in establishing the library and to encourage future donations. In the 1920s and 1930s, enough funds and a gift of land allowed construction of a new library building. Dedicated in 1938, the library was designed by Robert Booth and constructed by the C. F. Wooding Company of Wallingford at a cost of $26,899.52. In the 1960s, the Memorial Library Association also came to administer the Martha Culver Library in North Haven on behalf of the town. In 1970, the Library Association offered its existing building and land to the town in exchange for constructing a new library building that would be run by the town. The new library was dedicated in 1972 and the old library building became the North Haven Cultural Center, which is now home to the North Haven Historical Society and the North Haven Art Guild.

Good Will Grange Hall (1929)

John H. Hale, famous for his growing of peaches in Glastonbury, also organized the town’s chapter of the Grange in 1885 and became Master of the Connecticut State Grange in 1886, serving for four years. He also served as a representative to the state’s General Assembly and was a founding trustee of the Connecticut Agricultural College In 1929 the Glastonbury Grange erected a new Hall, called Good Will Grange Hall, at 43 Naubuc Avenue. Today, the Glastonbury Grange #26 meets at the Masonic Hall at 895 Main Street and the East Central Pomona Grange #3 (founded in 1887) meets at Good Will Grange Hall.