Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Towns

Samuel Babcock House (1851)

Samuel Babcock (1788-1851) was a prominent Middletown manufacturer and politician. Originally from Old Saybrook, he was a silversmith there and around 1812 came to Middletown, where he had a shop near the Episcopal Church. In the 1850 census, he was listed as a spectacle maker (eyeglass manufacturer). He was active in various businesses, including banking, granite-quarrying and railroads. About 1851 he erected an Italianate house on Main Street, in front of Mortimer Cemetery. In 1927, the house was moved to 64 Liberty Street, across from the cemetery to make way for commercial development. At its new location, Salvatore Muscatello, the new owner, converted the second floor into a rental apartment and detached the original rear wing to become a separate house at 5 Frazier Avenue.

Mayo S. Purple House (1909)

The Colonial Revival-style house at 142 Main Street in East Hampton has a Queen Anne-style octagonal side tower. The house was built in 1909 or 1910 by Mayo Smith Purple (1860-1942), a prominent businessman in East Hampton. For 35 years he worked for the Bevin Bell Company, eventually becoming the company’s secretary. Around 1914 he assisted in the reorganization of the Gong Bell Manufacturing Company, subsequently serving as that company‘s president for about 28 years. His other positions included president of the Watrous Manufacturing Company, treasurer and manager of the East Hampton Bell Company, and in the mid-1920s treasurer of the Bevins and Wilcox Line Company. Purple also served in the state legislature for a term in 1885-1886 and returned almost a half-century later for four consecutive terms from 1932 to 1940. In 1883 he married Gettine Louise Arnold, who died in 1935.

Col. Daniel Brainerd House (1780)

Col. Daniel Brainerd (1752-1809), a farmer, built the house at 275 Saybrook Road in the Higganum section of Haddam about 1780. His sons inherited the house, but it was their sister, Zeruah Brainerd (1786-1877), who lived in it until her death. In the early twentieth century, the house was occupied by Owen Brainerd (1865-1919), an architect who worked with Carrere and Hastings of New York. He designed St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church (now used as a private residence) on Saybrook Road.

The Cooley Gallery (1867)

The building at 25 Lyme Street in Old Lyme was built in 1867 as the J. A. Rowland Hardware Store, which occupied it until 1948, when it was sold to Smith’s Hardware. In 1975, antiques dealer Richard T. French bought the building, which soon became the Country Duffer clothing store. The building has been home to The Cooley Gallery since 1988.

75 Olmsted Street, East Hartford (1890)

The similarly designed houses at 69 and 75 Olmsted Street in East Hartford were both built as rental properties about 1890 by Herbert S. Keeney, who probably did not himself reside in town. He later sold the house at #69 to Louise K. Seymour and owned #75 (pictured above) until the 1920s.

Ezra Parker House (1826)

As related in Houses of Essex, Vol. I, by Donald Malcarne (2004, Ivoryton Library Association), page 86, the house at 1 Main Street in Ivoryton (on the edge of Centerbrook) in Essex was built circa 1826 on land acquired in that year by Ezra Parker, just east of where his brother, Daniel Parker, had also purchased land for a homestead in the same year. The land had been part of the holdings of the Williams family, descendants of Charles Williams, the first iron maker in Potapoug Quarter (part of which would become the Town of Essex). Ezra Parker sold the house in 1843 and moved to Michigan. The house later returned to the Parker family when Chauncey Spencer, Jr., married to Ezra’s niece Temperance, bought it in 1864. It then remained in the family until 1910. The current front entrance portico and larger chimney are alterations made since the mid-1950s.

Chimney Crest (1930)

Wallace Barnes began manufacturing springs for clocks in Bristol in 1857. His grandsons, Fuller and Henry Barnes, developed the business into the Associated Spring Corporation, created by a merger of three companies in 1922. They also acquired other companies, including the spring-making firm of Dunbar Brothers. Fuller Barnes (1887-1955) served as president and his brother, Henry Clarke Barnes (1889-1966), was secretary-treasurer. In 1920, Fuller acquired a large property in Bristol where he and his brother would erect their mansions. Fuller built the Colonial Revival house called Copper Ledges in 1924 and Henry built the 32-room Tudor-style residence called Chimney Crest in 1930-1931. Located at 5 Founders Drive in Bristol, the house was designed by Perry & Bishop of New Britain. It was home to Henry and his wife, Lilian Houbertz Barnes (1891-1986) until they moved to Green Acre Farms on Perkins Street in Bristol. In the 1960s the Barnes mansions were used by Laurel Crest Academy, a prep school for boys, and more recently

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