Goodspeed Opera House (1876)

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The Goodspeed Opera House is a notable historic landmark along the Connecticut River in East Haddam. It was built in 1876 by William Goodspeed, a merchant and banker. Originally serving as a store, office and steamship docking point, as well as having a theater on its top two floors, the Goodspeed was built in the distinctive Second Empire style (with a mansard roof) to attract the attention of traffic along the river. The first performance at the Opera House was on October 24, 1877. After Goodspeed’s death in 1926, the building was used for various purposes, including being a World War I militia base, a general store and a storage facility for the Highway Department. Having fallen into disrepair, it was restored in 1959 by Goodspeed Musicals, a non-profit organization dedicated to musical theater. Rededicated in 1963, the Goodspeed Opera House has continued since then to be the home for performances of musicals and is one of several facilities currently owned by Goodspeed Musicals.

Amasa Day House (1816)

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The Amasa Day House in Moodus (in East Haddam) was built in 1816 by Colonel Julius Chapman, who farmed on the property. After his death, in 1842, the property was sold at auction and purchased by Amasa Day. In the following years, Day, who was an insurance agent and banker, sold off parts of the land. The house was inherited by his daughter, Katherine and her husband, Eugene Chaffee, who worked for the New York Net and Twine Company, one of several twine factories in Moodus. Their son was Dr. Amasa Day Chaffee, a well-known art photographer. The house was donated to Connecticut Landmarks in 1967 and is now a museum.

Epaphroditus Champion House (1794)

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Epaphroditus Champion was the son of Col. Henry Champion, the primary purchasing agent for the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. Father and son drove a heard of 300 cattle to feed the Washington’s soldiers at Valley forge in 1778. After the War, Epaphroditus Champion, who was a merchant, later settled in East Haddam and served as a U.S. Congressman from 1807 to 1817. The house he built in East Haddam, on a bluff which provides a view of the Connecticut River, is also known as The Terraces. Champion was the cousin and brother-in-law of the merchant Julius Deming of Litchfield. He hired William Sprats, the architect of Deming’s home, to recreate a similar house for himself in East Haddam. In 1940, the Champion House was purchased by the artist, Northam Robinson Gould, who restored it. According to John Warner Barber, in his Connecticut Historical Collections (1836), the house “is distinguished for its bold and lofty terraces, and is a striking object to travellers passing on the river.”

First Church of Christ, Congregational, East Haddam (1794)

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East Haddam‘s first Ecclesiastical Society began in 1704 and the first meetinghouse took five years to build. The first minister was Rev. Stephen Hosmer. A second meeting house replaced the first in 1728 and the third and current church was built in 1794. It was designed by Lavius Fillmore, an architect who later designed the Congregational churches in two Vermont towns, Bennington (1805) and Middlebury (1809), the latter being considered his masterpiece. The Federal-style East Haddam church has an elaborate interior with Doric columns and Roman arches. It was also built with a domed ceiling which provides excellent acoustics.

Gillette Castle (1919)

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Gillette Castle was built by the actor and playwright William Gillette. Born in Hartford in 1853, William Hooker Gillette was the son of Senator Francis Gillette and the nephew of John Hooker and Isabella Beecher Hooker. He grew up in Hartford’s Nook Farm neighborhood and made his debut in Mark Twain‘s Gilded Age in 1877. Gillette became most famous for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes on the stage. He also wrote plays and a work of theory celled The Illusion of the First Time in Acting (1915). Gillette built his castle, in East Haddam, on the southernmost hill of a chain called the Seven Sisters. Modeled on the ruins of Medieval German fortress on the Rhine, Gillette’s Castle was built between 1914 and 1919 of local fieldstone supported by a steel framework. He supervised the construction of the distinctive building, which was surrounded by Gillette‘s eighty-four acre estate on the Connecticut River. He also had his own steam train. Gillette, who died in 1937, stated in his will that he did not want his property to going to “some blithering saphead who has no conception of where he is or with what surrounded.” The home and estate was purchased by the State in 1943 to become the Gillette Castle State Park. Recently restored, the castle is open to the public for tours.