Saint Mary’s Orthodox Church, Waterbury (1974)

The original Saint Mary’s Orthodox Church in Waterbury, founded primarily by Ukrainian and Russian immigrants, was built in 1906-1908 on Crown Street. In 1968, the parish purchased 12 acres of land on North Main Street for the future site of a new church. Work began in 1972 and the cornerstone of the Crown Street church was transferred to the newly completed Nativity of the Holy Virgin Mary Church in 1974. Adjacent to the church, a new rectory was built in 1975 and the new Saint Mary’s Orthodox Center in 1980-1981.

Update 2/15/2021: As per the comment below, this building has been demolished: Demolition begins at St. Mary’s Russian Orthodox Church in Waterbury // WITH VIDEO | Republican American Archives (rep-am.com)

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John Wiard House (1754)

Off Route 4 in Burlington is a house built on a tract of land soon after its purchase by John Wiard, Jr. (1720-1788) in 1754. It was later passed to his son, Seth Wiard and then to Seth Wiard, Jr. The house is notable for having many well preserved eighteenth-century exterior and interior details, as well as Federal-style interior alterations made about 1810. Now set back from the road, the house’s front driveway, parallel to Route 4, marks the road’s original location, before it was moved to the south.

Thomaston Opera House (1884)

The Thomaston Opera House was built in 1884 by the town of Thomaston as a multi-purpose building to serve as both town hall and theater. The stylistically eclectic structure was designed by architect Robert Hill. Granite for the building came from the Plymouth Granite Quarry in town and the bricks were made at the Seth Thomas Brick Factory. In the 1930s, the Opera House became a movie theater, but was little used in later years until eventually the building was closed for fire code violations in 1963. The Thomaston Opera House Commission worked to raise money to save the condemned landmark building from demolition. It was restored and rededicated in 1968. In recent years, the nonprofit group running the Opera House fell into debt and operations ceased in 2010. As of 2012, the Opera House will reopen under the management of the Landmark Community Theater Company.

James Gallery & Soda Fountain (1790)

In 1824, the Marquis de Lafayette stopped at a store in Old Saybrook to make a purchase (according to tradition he bought either a pair of socks or a bar of saddle soap). Built in 1790 as a general store for the Humphrey Pratt Tavern, the building was moved in 1877 to the corner of Pennywise Lane where it became a pharmacy. A new section with a soda fountain was added in 1896 by owner Peter C. Lane, who had received his license in 1895 becoming one of the first two black pharmacists in Connecticut. From 1917 to 1967, the James Pharmacy was run by his sister-in-law and partner, Anna Louise James, the first African American woman to graduate from the Brooklyn College of Pharmacy and Connecticut’s first female African American pharmacist. Miss James, as she was called, retired in 1967 and continued to live in the building’s back apartment until her death in 1977. Miss James’s niece, Ann Lane Petry, was also a pharmacist and worked for a time at the pharmacy. Petry became known as a writer, most notably for her novel The Street (1946), which became the first book by a black woman writer with sales topping a million copies. Closed after Miss James’s retirement, the building was restored and reopened by new owners in 1984 and then had other owners. Today, it is owned by the neighboring Deacon Timothy Pratt House B&B and is known as the James Gallery & Soda Fountain.

Daniel Tuttle House (1792)

The Daniel Tuttle House is a Federal-style saltbox house built in Wolcott in 1792. The house is located at 4 Kenea Avenue and faces Wolcott Green. Daniel Tuttle worked as a carpenter. Seth Thomas, who would later become a famous clock manufacturer, began his career in Wolcott as an apprentice to Daniel Tuttle. Thomas would eventually build his factory in Plymouth Hollow, which was later renamed Thomaston in his honor. In 1797, Tuttle sold his house to Asoph Hotchkiss and moved to Plymouth. Hotchkiss was one of three men who donated land for what would become the town Green. The house passed through other owners, who oversaw the construction of a stone wall around the property and the landscaping of the grounds with shrubs and flower gardens. In 1964, All Saints’ Episcopal Church was built on the property to the rear of the house, which was serving as the parish rectory. Today, the house is again under private ownership.

Beriah S. Rathbun Apartments (1869)

With a commanding location overlooking Washington Square at the intersection of Church, Main, Water and Washington Streets in Norwich is the Beriah S. Rathbun House and Apartments. It was built about 1869 at 6-8 Church Street by Beriah S. Rathbun, a carpenter who lived in the building and took in boarders. He came to Norwich in 1840 and built a house in the winter of 1841-1842 which he sold in 1868 when he constructed his house/apartment building. In Norwich he was one of thirty-seven people who organized the Central Baptist Church, constructing the stairs of the original church building..

Rathbun (see pdf) married Martha D. Coburn, his second of three wives, in 1846. She was a soprano in the choir of the Central Baptist Church. One Sunday in 1849, Ithamar Conkey, organist and choir master at the church, became very irritated that Mrs. Ratbun was the only member of his choir to show up for the morning service. After playing the prelude, he closed his organ and went home in disgust. Later he felt remorse for having walked out. Reflecting on one of the hymns to have been sung that morning to John Bowring’s text, “In the Cross of Christ I Glory,” Conkey decided to write a new tune for the text and named it Rathbun, in honor of the faithful soprano (see pdf).

To the left of the Rathbun Building is a house built around 1737 by Captain Joseph Kelley, one of Norwich‘s earliest shipmasters.