Trumbull Town Hall (1957)

I’ve just completed an index (by address) for the 16 buildings I’ve featured on this site that are in the Town of Trumbull. The most recent of these buildings is featured in today’s post: the Trumbull Town Hall. I’ve previously featured the Helen Plumb Building in Trumbull, which served as town hall from 1883 to 1957. In that year, the new Town Hall, pictured above, opened at 5866 Main Street. Previously this had been the site of the Aaron Sherwood Homestead, built in 1880. The house was later the home of Dr. Clarence Atkins, a dentist, and was then used as a convalescent home called the Hillcrest Hygienic Lodge.

David Mallett Jr. House (1760)

The David Mallett Jr. House is an exceptionally well-preserved center-chimney colonial farmhouse, located at 420 Tashua Road in Trumbull, directly across from Christ Episcopal Church and Tashua Burial Ground. The Mallett family were prominent citizens in Trumbull in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, building many houses in the Tashua District: by 1867, 13 of the 36 homes in Tashua were owned by members of the family. David Mallett, Jr. (1735-1822) built his house in 1760, the year of his marriage to Rhoda French (1740-1777). He was a farmer and innkeeper. It was a difficult time for farmers in Connecticut and Mallett economized where he could. The house was built with little decorative ornamentation and Mallett displayed Yankee thrift by later reusing a former Sabbath Day House to provide an addition on the west side. This was done to accommodate his youngest son Aaron at the time of his marriage in 1805. The original entrance to the house may have been on the west side and was moved to its current placement when the addition was made. A larger addition on the east side of the house may also be a reused earlier building. Aaron Mallett (1771-1855) inherited the house after his father’s death.

Fairchild Memorial Library (1925)

Before the Trumbull Library opened at 33 Quality Street on June 8, 1975, the town of Trumbull was served by three independent libraries: the Nichols Memorial (1923), Fairchild Memorial (1929), and Hawley Memorial (1937). These were merged under town administration in 1969. When plans were made to build that new library at a central location, two of the older libraries closed, but the Fairchild Memorial, now called the Fairchild-Nichols Memorial Library, remained as a branch of the new Trumbull Library System. Fairchild-Nichols began in 1922 as a lending library housed at the Old Firehouse. The library building at 1718 Huntington Turnpike was built in 1925 and the library opened in 1929.

N.I.A. Starkweather House (1867)

The Nichols Improvement Association was founded in 1889 to beautify and improve the historic village of Nichols in the town of Trumbull. The N.I.A. owns and maintains the Nichols Green, which has a World Wars Monument, and other properties totaling 42 acres. Across from the Green is the John B. Nichols Community Center. The N.I.A. acquired it as the John B. Nichols Memorial Park in 1951 and developed it as a community center. It includes the Stratweather House, 1773 Huntington Turnpike, which houses the N.I.A. offices and is available for rentals. The house was built in 1867 by John B. Nichols (1817-1899). Near the house is the Bunny Fountain, an 1895 gift from the Peet family to the citizens of Nichols.

George & Florence Woods House (1820)

The current home of the Trumbull Historical Society is the a house located at 1856 Huntington Turnpike, in the Nichols section of Trumbull. The house was built in 1820 on the property of the Nichols family, land that went back to Abraham Nichols, one of the original founders of the town of Stratford. The last of the family to live in the house was Florence Nichols Woods (died 1973), whose husband, George Woods (died 1972), was president of Bridgeport’s People’s Bank. Their estate was noted for its gardens. The couple left their property to the Nichols Methodist Church. The church did not require the property, so the house and land, known as the Woods Estate, were purchased by the town in 1974. Since 1978 the house has been rented by the Historical Society, while the grounds are now Abraham Nichols Park.

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