David Brainerd House (1874)

David Brainerd House

The Mansard-roofed house at 127 Pearl Street in Thompsonville, Enfield, was built c. 1874-1880 for David Brainerd. As recorded in The Genealogy of the Brainerd-Brainard Family in America (1908), by Lucy Abigail Brainard, David Brainerd

was registrar of voters, notary public and justice of the peace, collector of taxes, and represented the town of Enfield in the state legislature in 1862. He was appointed assistant assessor of internal revenue in the first congressional district by Abraham Lincoln, in 1862, a position he held for nine successive years. He has always been active in politics and is a Republican and ready to aid in all advancement for improvements in town, school or church. He has been Elder in the First Presbyterian Church in Thompsonville, Conn., where he resided, and is honored for his sterling worth and noble character.

David Brainerd married Caroline King in 1844. After her death in 1859, he married his first wife’s sister, Henrietta King, who died in 1901. One of his sons, Horace, worked with his father in his agricultural warehouse business, then became purchasing agent for the Bigelow-Sanford Carpet Company, and later was manager of the Overbrook Carpet Company. In 1932, the house was acquired by the Masons, who converted for use by a Masonic Lodge and added a ballroom. In 2007, the house was purchased by Enfield Pearl Ballroom & Dance Studio. It was renovated to have four apartments and a ballroom studio, called the North American Dance Academy, which has two dance floors.

United Presbyterian Church, Thompsonville (1901)

UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

In 1841 there was a dispute in the First Presbyterian Church in Enfield over whether an organ could be used in church services. Those in opposition to using an organ (their rallying cry was “No fiddle in the Kirk”) formed the separate United Presbyterian Church in 1845. They built a meeting house in Thompsonville in Enfield the following year. The church was built on land acquired from Orrin Thompson’s carpet company for a dollar with the requirement that they return the property when asked. This eventually happened fifty-five years later when the company built an expansion. A new church building was erected at 100 High Street in 1901. The church had an organ, the original cause of separation having long disappeared by that time. The church was damaged by a fire in 1943 but was repaired after eleven months of work. The church merged with the First Presbyterian Church in 1973 to form the Calvary Presbyterian Church, located on King Street in the southwestern corner of Enfield. The old church building on High Street then served as the Enfield Senior Center from 1974-2003 and afterward housed town offices, a local theater group and the New Life Community Church. This year, the Town of Enfield solicited proposals for development of the property, which is now called the Village Center. The town requires adaptive reuse of the building that will preserve its impressive stained glass windows.

Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, Enfield (1863)

Holy Trinity Church

The church at 383 Hazard Avenue in Hazardville in Enfield was built as St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in 1863. Its erection was funded by Colonel Augustus G. Hazard, the gunpowder manufacturer who had founded Hazardville. In 1992, three Episcopal parishes, St. Mary’s Church, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Thompsonville and Calvary Episcopal Church of Suffield, began cooperating as a regional ministry of parishes. In 2007, the three parishes merged to form Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, whose home is the former St. Mary’s Church.

Enfield Shaker Village Meeting House (1827)

Shaker Meeting House, Enfield

Earlier this month I featured buildings at the Hancock Shaker Village on my site Historic Buildings of Massachusetts. Connecticut also had a Shaker village. It was located in Enfield, but not nearly as many of its buildings have survived and they have been restored as they have at Hancock. On this site, I’ve already featured the South Family Residence and the adjacent laundry, ice house and dairy. The Enfield Shaker community grew to include five “families.” Besides the South Family, there were the North, East and West Families and, centrally located, was the Church Family. The first to be organized, the Church Family had overall control over the entire Enfield Shaker settlement. The last Enfield Shakers left the area in 1917. The State of Connecticut purchased the former Shaker property in 1931 for what is now the Enfield Correctional Institution. One of only two buildings to survive from the Church Family is the former Meeting House/Trustee House. Built in 1827, the building had an open meeting hall for the entire community and (perhaps later?) housed the Trustees, who handled the community‘s dealings with the outside world. Shakers were associated with reform movements, such as abolitionism: Sojourner Truth once spoke at the Meeting House.

Enfield Public Library, Pearl Street Branch (1914)

Carnegie Library, Enfield, Connecticut

Industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie funded the construction of thousands of libraries in North America, Europe and Oceania, including the one at 159 Pearl Street in Enfield. Carnegie provided $20,000 for the library, which covered the land, construction and furnishings. John Pickens, who successfully petitioned Carnegie for the funds in 1910, at first faced resistance from the town, which feared the library would be a burden. Pickens persevered and the library opened on May 5, 1914. The building later became a branch library after a new Enfield Center Library was built in 1967. Interestingly, there is also a Carnegie Library in the London Borough of Enfield.