Built around 1879 for less than $2,000, Tolland‘s Old Town Hall, at 22 Tolland Green, was used for town meetings and other public events. The Victorian building served as Town Hall until 1985. In 1995-1997, restoration took place which converted it into the Arts Center of Tolland.
The Chi Psi fraternity established a chapter at Wesleyan in 1844. Their new fraternity house, built in 1904, was designed in the Colonial Revival style by Raymond F. Almirall, of Brooklyn, NY. It was destroyed in a fire in 1912 and was replaced by a new building, completed in 1927. Wesleyan acquired the property in the 1970s and it continued as a fraternity house until the University converted it into a residence hall around 2002. According to the University, “200 Church Street was established as housing for students who wish to build a safe, self-affirming, energetic, and close-knit community that focuses on social justice and diversity.”
Hills Academy, at 22 Prospect Street in Essex, was built in 1832 on land donated by Joseph Hill. Funded by local businessmen, it served as a private school. It was run by a group of trustees until 1848, when it was leased to teacher Lucius Lyon, who constructed a seminary building next door for boarders. In the 1870s, the seminary building was sold and converted into a hotel, known initially as the Pettipaug House. It was later torn down. The Academy itself was sold to the town in 1903 and used intermittently as an elementary school until the 1930s, when it was leased to the The Improved Order of Red Men and became known as Red Men’s Hall. Saved from demolition in 1909, Hills Academy was purchased by the Essex Historical Society in 1954 and has since been used as a museum.
The old Steamboat Dock in Essex was built in 1878 by Phoebe Hayden, widow of William S. Hayden. Originally a warehouse and general store, the building has been used for various purposes over the years. In 1944, it was acquired by the Lovell family, owners of the nearby Griswold Inn, who put a restaurant on the second floor. After they sold the building in 1962, it began to fall into disrepair, but was eventually saved and converted to become home to the Connecticut River Museum. The building’s roof was damaged by a fire in 2010. The museum has since been fully repaired and restored.
Arthur G. Pomeroy was a wealthy tobacco leaf grower (described as “one of the pioneers in the [tobacco] trade”) from Suffield. He built this elaborate Queen Anne-High Victorian Gothic house at 490 Ann Uccello Street in Hartford sometime around 1882-1890. The house was rehabilitated for offices in the 1980s by the Taino Housing and Development Corporation.
The 3-unit row houses at 526–534 East Washington Street, facing Washington Park, in East Bridgeport, were built in 1882 to designs by Palliser & Palliser.
Polish immigrants in New Britain first formed a congregation in 1894 as a mission of St. Stanislaus parish in Meriden. The new parish in New Britain was established the following year. Originally named St. Casimir the King, its name was changed in 1896 to the Sacred Heart of Jesus parish. The first church was built on Orange Street in 1896. The current church, at 158 Broad Street, was designed by architect George P. B. Alderman of Holyoke. It was built in 1903-1904.
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