The Samuel Andrews, Jr. House is at 105 N Main Street in Southington. The Second Empire-style House, which has lost its roof dormers, was built in 1870. Since 1958 it has been owned by the Wolak family. Shortly after purchasing it, the Wolaks began to take in boarders and the house continues today as Wolak’s Guest House.
Southington‘s only known nineteenth-century architect is Lauren T. Campbell, who was listed in the local directory as a joiner in 1882 and as an architect after 1889. Campbell designed his own house, a towered Italianate villa at 45 Berlin Avenue built in 1877. His only other known building, the H.B. Gleason House, is located nearby at 63-65 Berlin Avenue. It has similarities to the Campbell house but lacks the Italianate tower. (more…)
Members of the Southington Congregational Church met in 1863 to form a new congregation in the Plantsville section of town. The Plantsville Congregational Church was built at 99 Church Street in 1866. An excellent example of the Gothic Revival style, it was designed by J. Cleveland Cady, a nationally prominent architect. An 1868 book entitled The Architects’ and Builders’ Guide: An Elaborate Description of all the Public, Commercial, Philanthropic, Literary, & Ecclesiastical Buildings Already Constructed, and About to be Erected Next Spring in New York and its Environs, with their Cost Respectively, and the Names of the Architects and Builders, by John W. Kennion, contains the following description of “The New Congregational Church at Plantsville, Conn.,”
This building, designed by Mr. J. C. Cady, Architect of New York, is of the Gothic style, adapted carefully to the wants of the congregation. It is completely free from all shams and make-believes. The interior wood-work is of chestnut and black walnut, (except the framings of the open timber roof, which is of pine,) all waxed or oiled, showing the natural and beautiful grain of the wood. The walls are colored in flat tint, the ceiling a deep blue, and the side walls a delicate harmonious neutral. The windows are filled with stained glass of quiet and pleasing tones. Back of the pulpit, is a large arched opening, richly moulded, which is the frame of the apse, or semi-circular alcove, in which are the clergymen’s seats. Two large dormer windows in the roof, one either side of the pulpit, contribute greatly to the light and cheerfulness of that portion of the church—the light falling down upon the pulpit and the people, and not being directly in the eyes of the congregation, as is the case where there are windows back of the pulpit. It is capable of seating about five hundred worshipers, all of whom can see the speaker, hear him as easily as in an ordinary room, and enjoy good ventilation. The exterior of the church is quite picturesque, with graceful tower and spire, capacious porches, gables, &c., all harmonizing with the situation and expressive of their various purposes.
As described in The Bench and Bar of Litchfield County, Connecticut (1909):
Romeo Lowery, born in Farmington in 1793. graduated at Yale in 1818, studied at the Litchfield Law School and was admitted to this Bar in 1820. He settled in Southington and was a highly respected member of the Hartford County Bar and a Judge of the County Court. He died in 1856.
Lowery also invested in two local companies that would later became part of Southington’s two most successful firms, Plant Bros. Manufacturing Company and Peck, Stow & Wilcox. Lowery’s 1828 house is at 101 North Main Street in Southington. It remained in his family until 1964 and is today used as offices.
The Francis W. Lewis House is a three-story (with porches on the first two floors) Italianate house at 153 N Main Street in Southington. It has been dated to around 1880, but was apparently converted from a preexisting building dating to 1800. Timlow’s Ecclesiastical and Other Sketches of Southington, Conn. (1875) lists a Francis W. Lewis:
son of Chauncey (184), b. Jan. 21, 1816; m. Dec. 7, 1840, Sarah C. Beckley, daughter of Moses W. and Mary Berkley. He lives in the village of Southington, and has a boot and shoe store.
Captain Samuel Woodruff of Southington was a descendant of Samuel Woodruff, the town’s first colonial settler. As described in Heman Timlow’s Ecclesiastical and Other Sketches of Southington, Conn. (1875):
Capt. Samuel S. Woodbuff, son of Robert, b. Nov. 12, 1811; m. June 8, 1834, Emeline, daughter of Wooster Neal. He lives on the place owned by his father and grandfather. During the last war he was conspicuous for the promptness with which he entered the service, and the gallantry that he displayed during his entire military career. He led the Southington company through the period of their enlistment. In the town he is held in high repute as a man of the most incorruptible integrity. He is a carpenter by trade.
After the war, Capt. Woodruff ran a carriage business connected to his son Adna Neal Woodruff’s contracting business on Liberty Street. Capt. Woodruff and his wife both died in 1882. His house, built around 1840, is at 23 Old State Road in Southington. Starting in 1915, the Murawski family owned the property and built up a large farm which they operated into the late 1960s. The house is notable among Greek Revival houses in in Southington for its pyramidal roof, center chimney and rural location.
The William Cummings House is a Queen Anne-style mansion, built c. 1890 at 28 Elm Street in the Plantsville section of Southington. In 1876, industrialist William H. Cummings married Lucretia Amelia Stow Cummings. She was born in Southington in 1851 and graduated from Vassar in 1874, where she had studied astronomy. Lucretia Stow Cummings served as head of Connecticut’s Public Health Nursing Association, working to reduce infant mortality rates, and led a campaign to improve rural schools in the state. Their grandson is Abbott Lowell Cummings, a noted architectural historian.
