Milford

Eells-Stow House (1700)

Samuel Eells settled in Milford in the later seventeenth century and owned property on Wharf Lane. He later settled in Hingham, Massachusetts and his son, Col. Samuel Eells, inherited the land in Milford, which later passed to his widowed third wife and then to Nathaniel Eells, his son by his second wife. Nathaniel, who lived in Middletown, sold the Milford property to Stephen Stow, the brother of his late wife. Stow, the captain of a coastal schooner, married Freelove Baldwin around 1751. He died in 1777 during the Revolutionary War while nursing 200 American prisoners of war suffering from smallpox, who had been cast off from a British prison ship. Four of Stow‘s sons also served in the war. The Eells-Stow House on Wharf Lane was once believed to date to the later seventeenth century, but is now thought to have been built c.1700-1720. The house was saved from destruction by the Freelove Baldwin Stow Chapter of the D.A.R. in 1930 and has since been preserved as a museum by the Milford Historical Society. The house underwent an extensive restoration in 1981-1982, which included the replacement of the later sash windows with the earlier type of diamond-pane casement windows.

Thomas Buckingham House (1640)

Thomas Buckingham was one of the original planters who settled Milford in 1639. The Buckingham House, on North Street in Milford, is said to have been built around 1640. The house, however, does not have the appearance of a First-Period seventeenth century house because it was remodeled after Jehiel Bryan, who married Esther Buckingham, acquired it in 1753. Capt. Jehiel Bryan, who served in the Revolutionary War, later built the Bryan-Downs House in Milford.

Built in the 1820s, the David Miles House, on North Street in Milford, has been attributed as the work of builder Michael Peck, who also built Milford’s First United Church and rebuilt the 1659 Clark-Stockade House around 1780. The house is an early example of a Greek Revival-style residence.

Taylor Memorial Library (1895)

The first library in Milford was established in 1745 and belonged to the First Church. The city’s first secular library began with the chartering of the Milford Lyceum in 1858. The Milford Lyceum Library was eventually dissolved in 1894, when the Taylor Memorial Library was founded. Dedicated in 1895, the Taylor Library was the gift of Henry Augustus Taylor, a financier and philanthropist. It is constructed of local fieldstone, red sandstone and yellow brick. The design of the Richardsonian Romanesque building was based on that of H.H. Richardson’s Crane Memorial Library in Quincy, Massachusetts. In 1976, the new Milford Public Library was opened at the corner of New Haven Avenue and Shipyard Lane, officially replacing the Taylor Library. The old library building was converted to office space and is now home to the Milford Chamber of Commerce.

33 New Haven Avenue, Milford (1928)

Adjacent on the southwest to Memorial Bridge in Milford is a brick commercial building (33-35 New Haven Avenue) with a granite foundation constructed in 1928. The building’s tower compliments the bridge’s Memorial Tower across the street and has a similar roof. The building has been used as retail space and today is home to a branch of the Southport Brewing Company.

Memorial Tower, Milford (1889)

Standing at the northwest end of Memorial Bridge, which crosses the Wepawaug River in Milford, is then 29-foot Memorial Tower. Built in 1889 to celebrate Milford’s 250th anniversary, the bridge and tower honor the city’s founders, whose exact resting places in Milford Cemetery are not known. The bridge and tower feature stones inscribed with the settlers’ names and dates. A collection of historical artifacts are also mounted to the structure, which was built on the site of the city’s first mill and features an original stone from the mill. An inscription on the tower honors Robert Treat, a notable early settler and governor of the Connecticut Colony. Over the tower‘s entrance is a stylized portrait of a Native American and a representation of the mark of Ansantawae, sachem of the Wepawaug or Paugussett nation, Milford’s original inhabitants.