Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Fairfield

Wakeman B. Meeker House (1855)

In 1832, Wakeman B. Meeker, Sr., a prosperous shipping merchant, acquired the old Bulkley residence at 824 Harbor Road in Southport. He formed the firm of Meeker & Sherwood with his partner, Simon Sherwood, in the 1830s and built a wharf and three warehouses across from his residence. They owned three schooners and seven sloops engaged in freight and passenger service. The firm later became W.B. Meeker & Son. Next to the Bulkley residence, Meeker erected a new house, 25 Westway Road, for his son c. 1850-1855. The front porch, decorated with highly ornamental sawed scrollwork, was added in 1891. After Meeker’s death in 1862, his son, Wakeman B. Meeker, Jr., carried on the business until his death in 1915.

Pequot School (1917)

The Pequot School is a former public elementary school building located at 214 Main Street in the Southport section of Fairfield. Designed by W. H. McLean and built in 1917-1918 (it opened for classes in January 1918), it replaced an earlier Pequot School building erected in 1854. The school closed in 1972 and the town’s Board of Education used the building until 1984. Local citizens, concerned about intrusive commercial development targeting the building, formed the Southport Conservany, which purchased the former school and has since leased it to the Eagle Hill School, a private school for children with learning disabilities.

Oliver H. Perry House (1843)

The grand Greek Revival house at 750 Harbor Road in Southport was built c. 1843-1844 by Oliver H. Perry [Not to be confused with the famous Oliver Hazard Perry]. Oliver Henry Perry was the son of Walter Perry, a ship owner and merchant, and the brother of Austin Perry and Gurdon Perry, who built their own houses in Southport in 1830. Although he graduated from Yale Law School and was admitted to the bar in 1841, Oliver Perry did not practice law but instead was a shipping merchant and financier. He was elected Connecticut Secretary of State in 1854 and in the same year had a vital role in securing a charter for the Southport Savings Bank. He was was also a member of Connecticut General Assembly, serving as Speaker of the House in 1859-1860. The house, originally called “The Harborage,” has four Doric columns supporting a Greek Revival pediment. In 2007 its current owners were engaged in a legal conflict with the Historic District Commission over a large concrete sculpture on the property. The state Supreme Court sided with the Commission and the sculpture was removed.

Southport Eastbound Railroad Station (1884)

The community of Southport in the town of Fairfield has two historic railroad stations (one eastbound and one westbound) on the New Haven Line of the Metro-North Railroad (originally a line of the the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad). The older of the two is the eastbound station, built in 1884 to replace an earlier railroad depot destroyed in a fire. It is typical of the brick stations that were built in Connecticut in the 1880s, but with more than usual attention to its decorative roof that reflects the High Victorian Gothic and Eastlake styles. No longer used as a station, the building is now home to Paci Restaurant. (more…)

Mrs. Zalmon Wakeman House (1871)

The house at 418 Harbor Road in Southport was built in 1871 by W. W. Wakeman for Mrs. Zalmon Wakeman and her daughters Mary and Frances Wakeman. Zalmon Bradley Wakeman (1803-1865) was a prominent sea captain and ship-owner. He married Sarah Ann Fowler (1806-1873) on March 3, 1829. The Wakeman sisters lived in the house until 1913.

Henry Perry House (1832)

In 1832 two similar Greek Revival houses were built in Southport for two brothers: the Francis D. Perry House and the Henry Perry House. The latter house, located at 45 Westway Road, was left by Henry Perry (d. 1847) to his wife Henrietta (d. 1892). It was then sold to Elisha C. Sherwood in 1892. Sherwood restored the house and on the north side he added a two-story section with an ornate first-story Palladian window and a two-story bay window.

Moses Bulkley House (1861)

In 1861 Moses Bulkeley, a prosperous Southport merchant, had a highly detailed Gothic Revival house erected at 176 Main Street. Designed by the Bridgeport architects Lambert & Bunnell, the house has distinctively Gothic pointed arches, decorated bargeboards and lancet windows. The tower was added to the house in 1886 by Moses Bulkeley’s son Oliver. From 1922, when the porch was extended, until 1958, the house was used as an inn.