Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Glastonbury

Tiffany Juliet House (1865)

The house at 82 Naubuc Avenue in the Curtisville neighborhood of Glastonbury was built c. 1865 by a member of the Welles family, which had cigar-making and shipbuilding interests in the area. In later years it housed workers from a nearby factory. The house was restored in the early 1990s and again a decade ago, when it became a bed-and-breakfast called the Tiffany Juliet House. The more recent work included the construction of a two-story rear addition to accommodate a nearly 750 square foot ballroom.

Richard J. Wooldridge House (1912)

The two-family house at 11-13 Naubuc Avenue in Glastonbury was built in 1912 by Richard J. Wooldridge (born c. 1879), a plumber. He and his family occupied one half of the house and rented out the other half.

Conference House, Glastonbury (1830)

Happy Halloween! The Conference House is a building in Glastonbury, built around 1830, that possibly once stood where the First Church of Glastonbury was erected in 1837. It was moved to another site down Main Street, just north of the Joseph Wright House. Called the Conference House, the church used it for meetings, lectures and concerts. Starting in the late 1830s it was used as a private school run by one of Deacon Wright’s sons. In 1894, Deborah Goodrich Keene, who lived at 2016 Main Street, the Hale-Goodrich House, bought the building and moved it across the street to its current address of 2000 Main Street. In 1911 she leased the house to Glastonbury’s first telephone switchboard. She later converted it into a private residence. Floodwaters from Hubbard Brook almost reached the roofline of the house in 1936.

Andrews-Bailey-Knox House (1840)

The Andrews-Bailey-Knox House is a Greek Revival house built in 1840 at 2163 Main Street in Glastonbury. It was once the home of Virginia Knox (1909-2002) who worked for the Connecticut State Library for 32 years, retiring in 1966.

J. H. Hale House (1911)

The large Colonial Revival house at 1420 Main Street in Glastonbury, which now contains medical offices, was built in 1911 for J. H. Hale (1853-1917). Known as the “Peach King,” John Howard Hale, with his brother George H. Hale, transformed the 200-year old Hale farm into a nationally-known peach-growing empire. He developed peach trees that could better withstand the northern climate. His accomplishments are described in Men of Mark in Connecticut (1906):

Mr. Hale is now sole owner and manager of the J. H. Hale’s Nursery and Fruit Farms at Glastonbury, president of the Hale Georgia Orchard Company, at Fort Valley, Georgia, and president and general manager of the Hale and Coleman Orchard Company at Seymour, Connecticut. He was the first American orchardist to sort, grade, and pack fruit, and label and guarantee it according to its grade. He was the first in America to use trolley transportation in the fruit business, and is one of the very few Americans who ship peaches to Europe. He is fittingly called the “Father of Peach Culture in New England.” Mr. Hale has also initiated many new ideas in fruit advertising. Another novel feature introduced by him is that of having an orchestra play in the packing rooms at the Georgia orchards. Aside from bettering and developing horticulture all over America, Mr. Hale has done a valuable service to his state in making many acres of so-called “abandoned” hill lands of Connecticut and New England to bloom with beautiful orchards.

[. . .]

Mr. Hale has written numerous articles on horticultural topics for the World’s Work, Country Life in America, and other periodicals. For twelve years he was associate editor of the Philadelphia Farm Journal, and for fifteen years he edited the agricultural column of the Hartford Courant. He has had important positions in the State Grange, and has sacrificed a great deal of time and money in strengthening that organization, being at the head of same from 1886 to 1890, and now chairman of the executive committee. He was also first president of the Glastonbury Business Men’s Association.

Hale also served as a state representative, during which time he played a role in forming the Storrs Agricultural College (now UCONN). You can read more about Hale in my post about the house of his grandfather, Ebenezer Hale.

George S. Andrews House (1878)

The house (which combines Gothic Revival and Italianate features) at 100 Main Street in South Glastonbury was built around 1878 by George S. Andrews (1819-1891). In 1866, he opened a feldspar quarry in South Glastonbury and started what is said to have been the first feldspar mill in Connecticut. What is now called “Old Maids Lane” was built by Andrews to transport the feldspar to the family’s dock on the Connecticut River.

Louis Howe House (1908)

In 1906, Louis Howe (1870-1968) leased the feldspar quarry and mill on Roaring Brook in South Glastonbury and made it the largest feldspar supplier in Connecticut, producing 65,000-70,000 tons of the mineral between 1906 and 1928, when the quarry became inactive. Howe was also a merchant and owned a water company that supplied South Glastonbury from his reservoir on Evergreen Lane near Chestnut Hill. Louis W. Howe also served in the state legislature. The Colonial Revival house at 1062 Main Street in Glastonbury was built for him in 1908.