Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Building Type

Joel Matthews House (1811)

The house at 4 Matthew Street in Prospect was built c. 1811 on a small piece of land that had originally been part of the farm of Ephraim Smith. The land had been sold out of the family in 1791 and passed through several owners until over the years. When Uriah Carrington bought the land in 1812, it included a recently built house. Carrington acquired additional property from Ira Smith, Ephraim’s son, to increase the size of the property to an acre. It had grown to two acres when it was acquired by Joel Matthews in 1833. The Greek Revival front entrance was probably added closer to that date.

Hale-Miller House (1835)

The house at 274 Jackson Hill Road in Middlefield was built c. 1835 by William Hale. In 1838 he sold the house to Ichabod Miller. The house and extensive farmland remained in the Miller Family until 1886.

David Badger House (1790)

The house at 571 West Main Street in Cheshire was built c. 1790 by David Badger. He was an early proponent of the Episcopal Church in Cheshire and served as one of the earliest clerks of St. Peter’s Parish. As explained in Old Historic Homes of Cheshire (1895):

It will be observed that this house faces the east instead of fronting the road. The reason given is that Mr. Badger desired his front rooms so arranged that he could from his front windows, or standing in his front door, get a view of the steeple of the Episcopal Church

The house was later owned by John Fields, whose sons Orrin and Samuel would both reside there as well.

Hebron Center School – American Legion Hall (1883)

The American Legion Hall at 18 Main Street in Hebron was built in 1883 as the town’s Center School (District No. 1). A two-room schoolhouse, it replaced an earlier one-room Center Schoolhouse that burned down in the Great Fire of 1882. Because it was the largest school in town at the time, students from one-room schoolhouses in Hebron that were closing in the 1930s were transferred to the Center School. The building was in use as a school until 1949 and then was transferred to the American Legion.

Seymour Town Hall (1936)

The Town Hall of Seymour, located at 1 First Street in downtown Seymour, is a Colonial Revival building erected c. 1930–1936. An addition was made in 1988.

John Stevens House (1800)

The construction date of the house at 1047 Main Street in South Glastonbury is not known. An assessor gave it a date of c. 1800. It was much altered in the late nineteenth century, possibly during the period of time when it was owned by John Stevens, a carpenter who died c. 1910.

St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Mystic (1867)

Begun as a mission in 1859, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Mystic was organized as a parish in 1865. That same year, the parish acquired land at what is now 15 Pearl Street for a church. The cornerstone was laid in 1866 and the first service was held on Christmas Morning, 1867. Once the church was free from its large construction debt of $9,000, the building was dedicated on St. Mark’s Day, April 25, 1873. An education wing was erected in 1962.