The John C. Anderson House (1882)

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Although by 1882 the Second Empire was no longer in fashion, the wealthy New Yorker John C. Anderson built an extravagant home in the style that year on Orange Street in New Haven. He only occupied the impressive mansion for a few years, complaining as he left of high taxes. Anderson was the son of the prominent New York tobacconist, John Anderson, who had died the year before his son built his own retirement home in New Haven. The elder John Anderson had an interesting career. In 1841, he was questioned in a sensational murder case, after Mary Rogers, known as the “Beautiful Cigar Girl,” who worked for Anderson in his tobacco shop, was found dead. The murder inspired the Edgar Allen Poe story, “The Mystery of Marie Rogêt.” In later life, Anderson would talk to spirits, including the ghosts of Mary Rogers and of his dead son. He had supported Garibaldi, who liberated Italy, and would speak to the Italian hero’s ghost (although Garibaldi was alive at the time!). Later, the John C. Anderson House became St. Mary’s Academy High School, run by the Dominican Sisters of St. Mary.

Five Mile Point Lighthouse (1847)

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The first Five Mile Point Light was constructed of wood in 1805 on the East side of New Haven Harbor. It was called Five Mile Point due to its distance from downtown New Haven. Considered to not be high or bright enough, the original tower was eventually replaced, in 1847, by the current one, built of brownstone with a brick lining. A newer lighthouse, built on nearby Southwest Ledge in 1877, superseded Five Mile Point Light, which thereafter ceased operation, although a caretaker continued to look after the structure. The land around where the lighthouse stands was later owned by the War Department and then the State of Connecticut, before eventually being acquired by the City of New Haven in 1924. This land soon became Lighthouse Point Park. The tower was renovated in 1986, with the exterior being steam cleaned and repainted. Adjacent to Five Mile Point Light is an 1835 keeper’s house, which at one time was connected to the tower by an enclosed wooden walkway (no longer extant). [Note that in the picture above the lighthouse is strung with lights as part of the park‘s holiday season Fantasy of Lights.]

Casa Bianca (1848)

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Casa Bianca is an Italianate house in New Haven, built around 1848. It most likely originally stood on Orange Street, but was moved to Bradley Street around 1882. In the early twentieth century, it was the home of George Dudley Seymour, a lawyer and preservationist. Born in Bristol, Seymour specialized in patent law in New Haven and was also dedicated to municipal improvements in the city. He urged the adoption of city planning (in line with the ideas of the City Beautiful Movement) and served as secretary of the city plan commission and the committee planning the construction of a new public library. Seymour also led the campaign to erect a statue of Nathan Hale on Yale’s Old Campus and he later restored the Nathan Hale Homestead in Coventry.

The Nehemiah Sperry House (1857)

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The Italianate-style Nehemiah Sperry House was built in 1857 on Orange Street in New Haven. It was the home Nehemiah D. Sperry, a businessman and Republican politician. He was a builder and contractor, who joined his brother-in-law, Willis Smith, in the prominent New Haven firm of Smith & Sperry. Much of the Orange Street neighborhood was developed by the company, which also constructed the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument in the city’s East Rock Park. Sperry served as New Haven’s postmaster, Secretary of State of Connecticut and as a U.S. Representative in Congress from 1895 to 1911. A lighthouse in New Haven Harbor, which no longer exists, was named in Sperry’s honor, as he had contributed much to the harbor area’s development. Sperry’s house, which has a design likely attributable to the office of Henry Austin, was originally much lighter in color and resembled the similar Edward Rowland House on Wooster Square.