The Masonic Lodge in Cheshire, Temple Lodge #16, was established in 1790. The Lodge has had various meeting places over the years. The current Masonic Temple in Cheshire is located at 9 Country Club Road. According to the Town of Cheshire’s Property Record Card for the building, it was built in 1900.
The predecessor to the Humiston School in Cheshire opened in 1894 and served as the town’s high school until 1906, when it closed due to dwindling enrollment and a lack of funding. The old building was razed in 1911 and a new school was erected in 1912, with financial support from Miss Julia Ann Humiston. She did not live to see the opening of the school, which was named for father Daniel Humiston. The school closed in 1971 and the building has since been used as school administration offices as as an alternative high school for approximately 15 to 30 students per year.
The house at 405 Maple Avenue in Cheshire was built c. 1790, but has been much altered from its original appearance. The book Old Historic Homes of Cheshire (1895), complied by Edwin R. Brown, states that “built by Col. Benjamin Hall for his son Benjamin, about 100 years ago,” but then notes
Benjamin Hall. Jr., for whom this house was erected, married Mary Ives in 1752. He graduated from Yale College in 1754. He was highly honored and esteemed as a citizen. He died in the year 1786, aged 50 years, at the very zenith of his usefulness.
The book also mentions later owners:
Here, also, William Law, the grandfather of Dr. William Law, resided for many years. He was a prominent official of the town, was selectman several years. and representative from this town in the years 1786, 1802, 1806, 1808 and 1809. A meeting of the Consociation of New Haven County was held at his house, November 14, 1786, he being one of those who were disaffected by the pastorate of the Rev. John Foote.
Chas. K. Brown, Wm, Spencer, Selden Spencer, and Franklin Howard have been owners of these premises, and have resided here with their families during these later years. Elizur P. Atwater purchased this property in the year 1873, and since that time has resided here. The farm connected with this place is considered one of the best in the town.
The Cheshire Grange was organized at the Atwater House in 1885 and its meetings were held there until a Grange Hall was erected in 1891. In 1957, the house was used at a convent for nuns who taught at St. Bridgid School. Today the building is home to Guardian Angels Homecare.
The house at 402 West Main Street in Cheshire was built around 1850. It has been much altered over the years, with the finely detailed Victorian bay windows on the second floor being added later in the nineteenth century. The house’s first resident was Samuel Hitchcock, a factory owner who started manufacturing suspenders and other forms of webbing in 1853. As described in the History of New Haven County, Connecticut, Vol. I (1892), edited by J. L. Rockey:
Samuel Hitchcock, born in Cheshire in 1813, is a son of Joseph Hitchcock, also born in Cheshire. Samuel was brought up on a farm and when 19 years old engaged in the mercantile trade, following that business until about 1860. He later engaged in manufacturing suspenders, built the large factory at West Cheshire, and operated it as the Hitchcock Manufacturing Company. The factory was sold to the American Braid Company, and they afterward added the manufacture of vegetable ivory buttons. Mr. Hitchcock had the entire charge of these industries. He retired from active business in 1882. He was married in 1835, to Lucy S. Bradley, of Cheshire. They lost their last child in October, 1889.. They celebrated their golden wedding in 1885.
The house at 276 West Main Street in Cheshire is an eclectic Victorian house built c. 1879 by Irwin Tolles Guilford (1856-1881), a bookkeeper at the Cheshire Manufacturing Company. His father, Ralph Hall Gilford (1820-1886), was one of the founders of the company, where he worked as a die sinker for many years. Irwin T. Guilford died at the age of twenty-six. His son, Irwin M. Guilford, later became secretary of the Ball & Socket Manufacturing Company, created after a 1901 merger of the Cheshire Manufacturing Company and the Ball & Socket Fastener Company of New Hampshire.
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.
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