Wallace Silversmiths Administration Building (1920)

Happy Tanksgiving! Perhaps you will eat your Thanksgiving dinner with fine Wallace silverware? In the 1870s, Robert Wallace, an immigrant from Scotland, established what would become the R. Wallace and Sons Manufacturing Company, a major American manufacturer of sterling silver. Over time, the company expanded its factory complex at 340 Quinnipiac Street in Wallingford. The Administration Building was built c. 1920-1924. By the 1950s, the company was known as Wallace Silversmiths. Over the years it would be sold three times and would relocate twice within Wallingford before leaving the state in 1987.

Yalesville United Methodist Church (1899)

In 1866, members of several Protestant denominations in the Yalesville section of Wallingford erected a small frame church known as the Union Church. Methodists and Baptists predominated in this mixed congregation. The following year the Methodists decided to become independent and purchased the Baptists’ share in the church for $3,428.61, with the aid of a donation from Charles Parker, a wealthy factory owner. A new First Methodist Church, now the Yalesville United Methodist Church, was erected at 8 New Place Street in 1899. A Church School addition was built in 1957.

Willoughby Williams House (1755)

The house at the corner of Harrison Road and Woodhouse Avenue in Wallingford was built in 1755 by Willoughby Williams (1736-1776), just before he married Abigail Alling on Jan. 22, 1756. Williams served in the French and Indian War. As related in the Commemorative Biographical Record of New Haven county, Connecticut (1902), he

is supposed to have come from England, where he was born in 1736. He died in 1776. Where he settled in Wallingford is still known as the “Williams section,” and is still occupied by a large number of his descendants. He was a weaver by trade, and was a very active man, and exceedingly athletic; he was able to put his great strength and endurance to good use in the French war, when he was taken prisoner at Quebec, and confined by the French on board a ship. In the night he dropped into the river, swam ashore, and reached the English lines.

The house in Wallingford remained in the Williams family until the 1940s.

Choate Rosemary Hall: Memorial House (1921)

Memorial House is a large Georgian Revival dormitory building on the campus of Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford. Completed in 1921, it was dedicated to the memory of the fifteen Choate boys who had fallen in the First World War. In 2014, new stair railings and new balustrade and columns for the entry portico were added in front of the building to mark the centennial of the war’s beginning. Memorial Hall was designed by Francis Waterman to be a mirror image of Hill House, which he had designed for the Choate campus a decade earlier.

Choate Rosemary Hall: Hill House (1911)

In 1908, George St John became headmaster of The Choate School in Wallingford. During his forty-year tenure, he oversaw a massive expansion of the school’s campus, which featured the erection of several large red brick Georgian Revival institutional buildings. The first of these was Hill House, completed in 1911. Designed by Francis Waterman, it set the style for the growing campus. The building was extended on the south side with the construction of the original Hill House Dining Hall in 1913-1914. Over the years, additional structures have been attached to Hill House, which remains at the heart of the Choate campus.

Choate Rosemary Hall: Seymour St. John Chapel (1924)

On the campus of Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford is the Seymour St. John Chapel, built in 1924. Designed by noted collegiate and ecclesiastical architect Ralph Adams Cram, it was originally named St. Andrew Chapel. In 1998, it was renamed in honor of Rev. Seymour St. John (1912-2006), who served as the school’s headmaster from 1947 to 1973. Over a decade ago the Chapel underwent a major renovation. In addition to repairs and updates to the building, the clock tower’s 10-bell Meneely Bell Co. Chime was also extensively restored and reconnected to the Chapel’s original Seth Thomas clock.