Norwich - Historic Buildings of Connecticut

The Simon Huntington, Jr. House (1690)

In 1688, Simon Huntington, Sr. granted an acre of land in Norwich to his son, Simon. According to Mary E. Perkins in Old Houses of the Antient Town of Norwich (1895),

This is then recorded as the home-lot of Simon Huntington, Jun., who was born in Saybrook, 1659, and married in 1683, Lydia, daughter of John Gager of Norwich. Like his father, Simon, 2nd, played an important part in the history of the town, serving in many civil offices, and in 1696, succeeding Simon, Sr., in the office of deacon of the church, which he held until his death in 1736. In 1704, he calls himself Simon Huntington (cooper.) In 1706, he was granted liberty to keep “a house of public entertainment.” His house, occupying a central position, was honored as the magazine for the defensive weapons of the town, and as late as 1720, a report, made to the town, states that it contained a half barrel of powder, 3 pounds of bullets, and 400 flints.

The Huntington Tavern remained in the family until 1782, when it is sold to Thomas Carey, who then sells it to Joseph Carew, a merchant. Again quoting from Perkins,

Capt. Joseph Carew perhaps tears down the old Huntington house, and builds the one now standing on the lot [in 1782-83], but it is also possible that instead of entirely destroying the old homestead, for which, being of Huntington blood, (though not a descendant of Simon, 2nd), he might have had some attachment, he may have altered, or added to the old framework, but this, of course, at this late day, we have no means of knowing. He also purchases the rest of the Huntington land, facing on the Green, except one small piece of one rod frontage, which is sold to Gardner Carpenter. The long, low, rambling house has the appearance of being of much older date than 1783. It was occupied by Capt. Joseph Carew until his death, and then by his daughter, Eunice, and son-in-law, Joseph Huntington. […] It has been occupied until recently [1895] as the First Church parsonage.

While there was later enlargement, the earliest parts of the house date to around 1690 and it is considered to be one of Norwichtown‘s surviving seventeenth century houses.

The Gardner Carpenter House (1793)

In 1793, Gardner Carpenter, Norwich postmaster, purchased a house in Norwichtown which had been built around 1740 by André Richard, a wig-maker. Carpenter removed the earlier house and replaced it with the current brick one. Carpenter was a merchant and ship-owner who died in 1815, having lost most of his property to disasters at sea. The house was then sold to Joseph Carew Huntington in 1816. Soon after, he added a wood third story and a gambrel roof to the home. Joseph Huntington moved to New York in 1834 and the house was sold in 1841. Over the years, various one-story additions have been made to the rear of the house.

The Joshua Prior House (1766)

In Old Houses of the Antient Town of Norwich (1895), Mary E. Perkins writes of a property along Washington Street:

Here Joshua Prior builds a house, perhaps about 1766, the time of his marriage to Sarah Hutchins of Killingly, and resides here for a time, but in 1789 he is living on the road near Elderkin’s bridge, and in 1790 he sells this house and land to Gideon Birchard, who also buys in 1795 a small piece of adjoining land (1 1/2 rods frontage) of his son Elisha, who has purchased the property on the north. Gideon Birchard (b. 1735), was the son of John and Jane (Hyde) Birchard and great-grandson of John Birchard, the first town clerk of Norwich. He married in 1757, Eunice Abel, daughter of Capt. Joshua and Jerusha (Frink) Abel, and had eight children. He was a carpenter by trade, and before 1799 moves to Whitestown, New York, and sells, in 1799, his house and land to Jeremiah Griffing. The house is still often called by old residents the Griffing house. In 1858, it is sold by the Griffing heirs to Daniel W. Coit, who sells it in 1871 to William Alfred Jones, who still resides here [William Alfred Jones died in 1900].

Daniel Lathrop School (1783)

Dr. Daniel Lathrop, who operated the first apothecary in Norwich, died in 1782 and left an endowment of £500 for the establishment of a free school in Norwich, with the condition that it remain in session eleven months of the year. Built of brick in 1783, the school is located on East Town Street, off Norwichtown Green. The Daniel Lathrop School stands next to the shop of Joseph Carpenter, built in 1772.

Cathedral of Saint Patrick, Norwich (1879)

The Catholic Cathedral of Saint Patrick Parish, on Broadway in Norwich, was built during the 1870s. The new Cathedral was built because of the crowded conditions at Norwich’s first Catholic Church, St. Mary’s, which was built in 1845 and was the first Catholic Church in Connecticut on the East side of the Connecticut River. The Gothic-style Cathedral was designed by James Murphy of Providence, who was the brother-in-law of the famous church architect, Patrick Keely. The Cathedral was largely constructed by Norwich’s Irish residents. Ground breaking took place on Good Friday 1871 and the first mass was held in the completed building on St. Patrick’s Day, 1879. The Cathedral was extensively renovated in the 1950s.

The Slater Memorial Museum (1886)

The Slater Memorial Museum was begun in 1886 and dedicated in 1888 on the campus of the Norwich Free Academy. It is one of only two fine arts museums in the United States on the campus of a secondary school. The Museum was donated by William Albert Slater in memory of his father, the wealthy industrialist and philanthropist John Fox Slater. The building was designed in the Richardsonian Romanesque style by architect Stephen C. Earle of Worcester and was expanded in 1906 with the addition of the Converse Gallery, donated by Charles A. Converse. The Museum‘s collections include regional American paintings, plaster casts of classical and Renaissance sculpture, and Asian, Pre-Columbian, Native American, African and Oceanic art. The use of plaster cast copies were a way American museums over a century ago would bring great European works to the American public. In 1891, at a time when the Metropolitan Museum was developing its own collection of plaster casts, a cast committee traveled from New York to Norwich to observe the arrangement of the Slater Memorial Museum’s collection and meet with William Albert Slater. The Slater Memorial Museum continues to be an educational resource for the Academy and the area community.

Norwich Savings Society (1895)

The Norwich Savings Society, the second oldest savings bank in Connecticut, was founded in 1824. The Norwich Savings Society building, at 162-4 Main Street, in downtown Norwich, was built between 1893 and 1895, with an addition being constructed in the 1970s. The building was designed to curve around one side of an intersection, joining seamlessly with the buildings on either side (although the building on the Broadway side has since been demolished). The Chateauesque-style Norwich Savings Society building now houses a People’s United Bank.