S.C. Kingman House (1870)

As related in D. Hamilton Hurd’s History of Fairfield County, Connecticut (1881):

Samuel Clayton Kingman, the second son of Samuel Kingman, was born in South Redding, Mass. (now Wakefield), in 1830, graduated in the high school, and was the valedictorian of his class. The following year he spent at sea for the benefit of his health, after which he served his time as a machinist in the celebrated Lawrence Machine-Shop, with such apprentices as Amos Whitney, Joseph Marble, F. Higgins, and J. A. Taylor, after which he spent one year in the service of Col. Anderson, at the Tredegar Works at Richmond, Va. Upon his return he entered the employ of the Wheeler & Wilson Manufacturing Company, at Watertown, Conn., organized about that time [1852; the company moved to Bridgeport in 1856], and still remains in their employ. He has invented a number of machines for the Company which have resulted in a great saving of labor.

Mr. Kingman was married in 1853 to Miss Emily Eustis Brooks, at Haverhill, Mass., a descendant of Governor Eustis. He has ever been a benefactor to the poor and sorrowing, and his gifts, with those of his companions, have been many. The bell of the Park Street Church, to which they belonged, memorizes the death of a soldier, friend, and brother, Albion D. Brooks, killed at Cold Harbor, June 3, 1864. The clock and communion-table presented by them attest their interest in the welfare of their church.

Mr. Kingman resides at Washington Park, [in East Bridgeport,] in a delightful residence, surrounded by his family, which consists of his wife and live daughters. He has occupied many positions of public trust, and enjoys the confidence and esteem of the citizens of the city in which he resides.

As a prominent citizen of Bridgeport, Kingman was appointed a secretary of the meeting of Republicans in Washington Hall that heard a speech by Abraham Lincoln on March 10, 1860. Kingman’s house in East Bridgeport was built in 1870. Located at 373 Noble Avenue, it was designed by architect Abram Skaats.

Charles H. Russell Block (1882)

The Charles H. Russell Block, 374-384 Atlantic Street in Bridgeport, is a four-unit block of row houses built in 1882. Based on circumstantial evidence, the building has been attributed to the architectural firm of Palliser, Palliser & Company. The block is part of a planned development of working-class housing, innovatively designed by the Pallisers on land owned by P.T. Barnum.

Mechanics and Farmers Savings Bank (1930)

Happy New Year from Historic Buildings of Connecticut!!! According to Vol. I of Waldo’s History of Bridgeport and Vicinity (1917), the Mechanics and Farmers Savings Bank of Bridgeport

received its charter in 1871, but was not officially organized until July, 1873, when the incorporators held their first meeting and elected a board of trustees; George W. Hayes, president; Andrew Burke and George Lewis, vice presidents; and Lyman S. Catlin, secretary and treasurer. It was started as an East Bridgeport bank and was located on West Washington Avenue, near East Main Street. From there the bank was moved to the basement of the Connecticut Bank Building, corner of Main and Wall streets, then to the Barnum Building, 407 Main Street, then to the City Bank Building, Wall Street, and finally to the new and attractive structure at 930 Main Street.

In 1930, the Bank constructed a new building, designed by Ernest G. Southey, in front of an earlier brick-faced building. Mechanics & Farmers Savings Bank failed in 1991 and the building has been vacant for many years. The Beaux Arts structure, which was owned for several years by the City of Bridgeport, was used in 2007 as a location for the film Righteous Kill, during which their was a minor fire in the bank’s lobby. Fletcher-Thompson Inc., an engineering and design firm that moved out of Bridgeport in 2002, plans to return to the city, renovating and moving into the former bank building by 2014.

Moses Redshaw House (1887)

The house at 401 Noble Avenue in Bridgeport was built in 1887 for Moses Redshaw, a toolmaker. According to his obituary in The Iron Age, Vol. 100, No. 9 (August 30, 1917):

Moses W. Redshaw, Bridgeport, Conn., general superintendent of the Bridgeport works of the Singer Sewing Machine Co., was killed Aug. 22 by a a fall through a hole in the floor of the factory, where repairs were being made. Mr. Redshaw was 65 years old and had been connected with the business for 45 years.

Arthur Smith House (1893)

The son of house builder David Smith, Arthur Smith was born in the Black Rock section of Bridgeport in 1847. After going to sea in his youth, he went into the coal business and later founded Smith’s Express Company. In 1893, he built a house in Black Rock at 118 Ellsworth Street (he had had an earlier house at 260 Brewster Street). The house was constructed by the Gould Brothers, local builders who lived nearby in Black Rock.