Powder Mill Barn (1845)

Powder Hollow Barn

Powder Hollow, in the Hazardville section of Enfield, was once the site of the Hazard Powder Company, which flourished in the mid-nineteenth century. The company furnished an estimated 40% of all the gunpowder used during the Civil War. Surviving friom the company’s original complex of buildings is a barn built around 1845. Constructed as a horse barn, it was converted by Ralph Sweet for Square Dancing in 1959. The Powder Mill Barn (also known as the Powder Hollow Barn) is also a popular rental hall for weddings, auctions and other events.

Carpet Company Superintendent’s House (1840)

Carpet Company Superintendent’s House

The carpet industry in Enfield was started in the late 1820s by Orrin Thompson, for whom Thompsonville (pdf) is named. His company eventually became the Hartford Carpet Company, which merged with the Bigelow Carpet Company of Clinton, Massachusetts to form the Bigelow-Hartford Carpet Company in 1914. At 12 Pleasant Street in Thompsonville is the former Carpet Company Superintendent’s House, a Greek Revival structure built around 1840-1850.

St. Patrick Church, Thompsonville (1904)

St. Patrick's Church

Merry Christmas! For Christmas, here is a church in Thompsonville (in Enfield). A Catholic mission church was first built in Enfield at the corner of Pearl and Cross Streets in 1860. The basement of a new church was begun at the corner of Pearl and High Streets in 1892. The completed Saint Patrick Church was dedicated by Bishop Michael A. Tierney on November 20, 1904. On January 5, 1949, a fire, ignited by a vigil light, gutted the church leaving only the outside walls standing. The church was fully restored by November 12, 1950. Today St. Patrick Church and St. Adalbert Church, also in Thompsonville, form the Catholic Communities of St. Patrick and St. Adalbert.

Rev. Nehemiah Prudden House (1783)

Rev. Prudden's House

The house at 1370 Enfield Street in Enfield was built in 1783. It was a wedding present from Capt. Ephra[h]im Pease (who lived next door) for his daughter Agnes (1760-1799), who married Rev. Nehemiah Prudden (1749-1815), minister at Enfield’s Congregational Church. After Agnes died, Rev. Prudden married her sister, Sybil (1754-1822), who was the widow of Prudden’s predecessor as minister, Elam Potter (1742-1894). (Potter had been dismissed as minister following a religious controversy in 1776.) In 1811 a volume by Rev. Prudden was published in Hartford with the title: To Marry a Wife’s Sister Not Inconsistent with the Divine Law.

Jabez Davis House (1881)

158 Pearl Street

Tonight I’ll be giving a talk about my book Vanished Downtown Hartford at the Enfield Public Library! Stop by at 7:00 PM and buy a signed copy of my book! The house pictured above, at 158 Pearl Street in Thompsonville in Enfield, was built circa 1881. It was the home of Jabez and Elizabeth Davis. Jabez P. Davis was a veterinarian, Enfield First Selectman (1896) and judge of the town court (1907)