Charles Phelps (1852-1940) of Rockville was a lawyer who served as Tolland County coroner (1883-1904) and state’s attorney for Tolland County (1904-1915). He was also corporation counsel and prosecuting attorney for the city of Rockville. In politics, he served as a state representative and state senator and then as Connecticut’s Secretary of State (1897-1899), resigning to became the state’s first attorney-general. Charles Phelps‘ 1905 Georgian Revival house at 1 Ellington Avenue in Rockville was designed by Hartwell, Richardson & Driver of Boston. While the house has recently been in need of rehabilitation, the carriage barn in the rear has been used for housing.
Augustus Truesdell (1810-1872) was an architect builder in Rockville who was listed on the map of Rockville in the 1869 Atlas of Tolland County as “Architect and Sup’t of Building.” Trusesdell built his own house, which has a prominent three-story tower, at 132 Prospect Street in 1852.
During the years from 1850 to 1860, the Methodist[s] built a comfortable meetinghouse in West street. This house took fire and burned on a Sabbath morning. The German Lutheran Church was a Baptist Church till after the Methodist Church burned. It was bought and occupied by the Methodist society up to the time of building the present Methodist Episcopal Church.
According toA Century of Vernon, Connecticut, 1808-1908, published in 1911:
The first service in the vestry of the new church was held on June 16, 1867. It was a love feast. The bell was raised to its place in the tower June 28, 1867. The vestry was inadequate to accommodate the congregations and the audience room of the church was dedicated on Tuesday, November 26, 1867, Bishop Simpson preaching the sermon.
From the time that Messrs. White and Corbin took the front basement rooms of the church, long used as banks, it was the intention of those gentlemen that this property should revert to the trustees of the church. When Cyrus White died this had not been attended to and Lewis A. Corbin bought the banks. The subject was frequently mentioned by pastors and others, but it was not until the pastorate of Rev. W. J. Yates that it was definitely arranged. Then Mr. Corbin executed deeds which are duly recorded, conveying the banks to the trustees. He reserved the income during his life. Then a portion was reserved for a fund for contingencies, but at last all the income goes to the trustees. Certain annual contributions to benevolent interests are provided for and the balance may be used for the current expenses of the church.
At 76 Prospect Street in Rockville (Vernon) is the 1893 mansion built for George Sykes. It was the first in a series of Queen Anne-style homes built for the owners of Rockville‘s textile mills. George Sykes came to America from Britain as a boy and from early on worked his way up in the textile industry. In 1866, at the age of 26, he came to Rockville to manage Hockanum Company mill, of which he was later president.
