At 73 Main Street in Middletown is a house (pdf) that originally stood on William Street. It was built in 1747 for William Southmayd, who died before it was completed. His widow, Mehitable, was the house’s first occupant. It remained a residence until 1975 and was then slated for demolition. The house was saved in 1977, when it was moved to its current address and converted to serve as offices.
At 291 Main Street in Middletown is a former U.S. Post Office, a limestone Renaissance Revival structure built in 1916. Planning for a new post office had commenced in 1911, but there was controversy over where to built it. Its location, at the southwest corner of Court and Main Streets, had been owned by the Federal Government since 1841. The Post Office ceased operations in 1977 and is now used by Liberty Bank.
The building pictured above is the Spencer Annenberg Block, built in 1897 at 630-636 Main Street in Middletown. (more…)
The First Baptist Church, at 93 Main Street in Middletown, is a brick edifice built in 1842. The First Baptist Church in Middletown was first organized in 1795, 47 years before it moved into its current building. (more…)
The Charles C. Hubbard House, at 148 Broad Street in Middletown is an Italianate-style house built around 1861. It was the home of Charles C. Hubbard, who owned a hardware store on Main Street that sold products manufactured by Hubbard on Warwick Street. In 1873, Thomas W. Coit bought the house. He was a professor of ecclesiastical history at the Berkeley Divinity School. The school was established in Middletown in 1854 and moved to New Haven in 1928.
Located in the village of Westfield in Middletown, the house at 125 Miner Street is an Italianate villa-style residence. It was built in 1860 by Henry Cornwell. Acquired by Edgar Burns in 1888, it remained in his family until 1952.
The building at 625-631 Main Street in Middletown is a Late Federal-style mansion (with early Greek Revival features), built in 1821 by Arthur Magill, Jr. With his father, Magill founded the Middletown Manufacturing Company, the first woolen mill to use steam power. Financial setbacks and a lost law suit in the Connecticut Supreme Court forced Magill to give up the property in 1832. From 1835 to 1870, the house was home to a boys preparatory school, run by Daniel Chase. D. Luther Briggs later lived in the house. He was Mayor of Middletown from 1890 to 1893. By that time, the building had been converted to commercial use, serving as a hotel/boarding house under various names until 1943. It now houses a Community Health Center.
