Truman A. Warren, a wealthy Watertown manufacturer, erected his large Italianate house in 1851 (Address: 5 The Green, Watertown). In 1859 he erected a cottage for his coachman next door (Address: 15 The Green).
Warren Coachman’s House (1859)
Arthur G. Evans House (1917)
The house at 30 Warren Way in Watertown was built in 1917 for Arthur G. Evans, purchasing agent for Chase Brass and Copper Company of Waterbury. According to the nomination for the Watertown Center Historic District, the house’s design, which represents a phase of the Colonial Revival style that sought to accurately duplicate the form, massing and detail of Colonial houses, has been attributed to Cass Gilbert. The plans may also have been drawn by another member of his firm or been outlined by Gilbert and completed by an apprentice. (The nomination‘s listing of structures in the Historic District gives a date of 1917 for the house, while the text for the District’s Architectural Significance gives a date of 1929).
Platt Farmhouse (1769)
The country farmhouse at 189 Platt Road in Watertown was built in 1769. The earliest known owner of the house is Jonas Platt of Newtown, who moved to Watertown around 1800. The house later passed from Jonas’ son Hinman to Hinman’s son Henry, who added the front porch and rear addition in the 1880s. His son Edgar Platt sold the farm to the Hresko family, which owned it until 1977. The farmland was then developed as the Winding Brook subdivision. After several years of corporate ownership, the house again became a private residence. On the property is an English bank barn, built c. 1870.
Baldwin School (1907)
After the 8-room wood-frame Center School in Watertown burned down in December of 1906, it was replaced by the brick Baldwin School at 68 North Street in 1907. The new school was named for Truman P. Baldwin (1838-1907). An interesting Arts & Crafts building that combines Classical and Victorian design elements, the school was in use until 2000, when the town opened a new school. The town sold the building to a developer planning to convert it into elderly housing (neighbors challenged the zoning for housing in court). In 2014, however, the building was sold to the Taft School. (more…)
Watertown Town Hall (1894)
The Town Hall of Watertown stands on the site where the town’s meeting house of 1772 had once stood. Town offices had previously been located in the Amos Gridley Store before the Town Hall was erected in 1894. The date is on the front of the building in Roman numerals: MDCCCXCIV. The Town Hall is an interesting combination of the Richardsonian Romanesque (similar to the former Watertown Library building across the street) and Colonial Revival styles. (more…)
Watertown Academy (1846)
Located at the corner of The Green and Academy Hill in Watertown is a schoolhouse constructed in 1846 (moved c.1850). It was built by the nearby Christ Church as a private school and served as the town high school later in the nineteenth century. The building was later used by the church as a parish house. It is now owned by the Taft School.
Nova Scotia District School (1853)
The Nova Scotia District School was one of the old one-room district school houses of the Town of Watertown. Originally located at the corner of Fern Hill Road and Route 6, it was built in 1853 and served as a school until 1929. The building was disassembled in 1990 and rebuilt in Munson Park at 17 DeForest Street, behind the Gridley Store and the Munson House. The Old Nova Scotia School House reopened in 1993 as a museum, maintained by the Watertown Historical Society and furnished as it would have been in the second half of the nineteenth century.
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