Willimantic - Historic Buildings of Connecticut

St. Mary Roman Catholic Church, Willimantic (1905)

Happy New Year! The first Mass to be celebrated in St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, 46 Valley Street in Willimantic, took place on January 1, 1905. The parish had been established to serve French Canadian immigrants. Over a century later, the church was undergoing renovations when a fire broke out on May 16, 2013. There was extensive fire, smoke and water damage and firefighters had broken through stained glass windows to fight the fire. Closed for two years while undergoing restoration work, the church was rededicated on June 20, 2015.

Willimantic Camp Meeting Association (1860-1948)

Camp meetings were a notable feature of religious life in nineteenth-century America and some continue in existence today. This site has already featured the Plainville Campground and Camp Bethel in Haddam. Another religious campground is the Willimantic Camp Meeting Association. It was established by Methodists who held the first meeting here on September 3, 1860. Today it is an interdenominational Evangelical Association. At its height the camp had 300 buildings, primarily cottages built by individual churches or families. A third of them were destroyed by the hurricane of 1938 and another hundred were lost to neglect over the ensuing decades. 100 cottages remain and constitute an architectural treasure. (more…)

First Baptist Church of Willimantic (1858)

The First Baptist Church of Willimantic is located at 667 Main Street. As related in Bayles’ History of Windham County, Connecticut (1889):

The church was organized October 20th, 1827. At first the school houses were used for meetings, but a spirit of opposition arose and they were debarred this privilege. With aid from abroad they succeeded in building a meeting house on the site at present occupied. The site was purchased of Alfred Howes, and Messrs. Reed, Hardin and Fenton, of Mansfield, were contracted with to erect the church. The building, being completed, was dedicated May 27th, 1829. A Sabbath school was immediately organized. [. . .] The church is a neat and commodious building, which, with the lot it stands upon, is valued at twenty-five thousand dollars. Connected with the church is a vigorous Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor and a large and flourishing Sunday school.

The 1827 edifice was replaced with the current church building in 1858. As related on the church’s website:

In 1968, the First Baptist Church of Willimantic had an opportunity to sell its building after the Valentine’s Day Fire destroyed the 1865 Union Block. The declining church voted not to sell and to remain a downtown church, which is where it still stands. In 2002, First Baptist voted not to close its doors and instead chose to celebrate its 175th anniversary.

William P. Jordan House (1885)

Built c. 1885, the house at 228 North Street in Willimantic was the home of William Peter Jordan (1863-1953), a hardware dealer who was born in Lebanon, Connecticut. His career is described in A Modern History of Windham County, Connecticut, Vol. II (1920):

in 1884 he directed his attention to commercial pursuits by accepting a clerkship in the drug store of Wilson & Leonard of Willimantic. After a time Mr. Wilson became sole proprietor and in 1890 sold to Mr. Jordan an interest in the business, which was then conducted under the firm style of F. M. Wilson & Company. Mr. Jordan was a partner in the enterprise until 1898, when he joined his brother, Frederick D. Jordan, in a partnership and thus became prominently connected with the hardware trade of Willimantic. He has continued in this line and the business has since been reorganized under the name of the Jordan Hardware Company, of which he is the secretary and treasurer. The company conducts both a wholesale and retail business and their patronage is very gratifying.

William P. Jordan does not confine his efforts to a single line, however, for he is identified with many important business interests which constitute leading factors in the commercial and industrial development of the city. He is now the treasurer of the Windham Silk Company, of which he became a stockholder and director in 1901. He is also the president of the Watts Laundry Machinery Company, engaged in the manufacture of presses and mangles, on which they hold patents, their output being shipped all over this country and also to France under government contract. Mr. Jordan also became a stockholder and one of the directors of the Willimantic Trust Company, which he assisted in organizing in 1915, and he is identified with the Willimantic Industrial Company and is president of the Jordan Automobile Company, which is featuring the Dodge, Buick and Cole cars, their sales territory covering Windham and New London counties in the sale of the Dodge and Cole, while their sale of the Buick cars covers a part of Windham county and of Tolland and New London. Mr. Jordan’s interests have thus become important and extensive and his activities place him in the foremost rank of the leading business men of his adopted city.

William Hastings House (1890)

At 215 Valley Street in Willimantic is a large Victorian house. Built c. 1890, it is named for William Hastings.

Hyde Kingsley House (1883)

Hyde Kingsley of Willimatic became wealthy in the lumber and coal business in the 1860s and 1870s. He was partner in the firm of Loomer & Kingsley with Silas Loomer, who would build the Loomer Opera House in Willimantic (torn down in 1940). In 1883 Kingsley retired and the lumberyard was acquired by George K. Nason. That same year Kingsley built a Queen Anne house at 133 Prospect Street in Willimantic.

Giles H. Alford House (1894)

The house at 106 Windham Street in Willimantic was built in 1894 for Giles H. Alford (1827-1900). Born in Otis, Massachusetts, Alford studied at the Westfield Normal School and became a teacher in Windsor. As described in the Commemorative Biographical Record of Tolland and Windham counties, Connecticut (1903):

In 1851 Mr. Alford went to Riverton, Conn., to take a position as clerk in the store of his uncle, Alfred Alford, who was extensively engaged in the furniture business at that point. At this time he made his first visit to Willimantic, part of his work being to deliver a load of chairs to a customer in that city. After a short time spent with his uncle, Mr. Alford bought out the Union Shoe Co., of Riverton. then comprising a general store, and this was his first business venture. Although he incurred a heavy load of debt, he pulled through, and became the sole owner of the establishment. During the first years of the Civil war Henry Alford cared for the store while Giles H. Alford was engaged in Virginia and Maryland as a sutler with Gen. McClellan’s army in 1861 and 1862.

In 1862 Mr. Alford removed to Willimantic, Riverton not affording as broad a field as he desired. In company with his cousin, James Alford, he opened a grocery store on Main street, in the present location of Purinton & Reade, but the close confinement soon undermined their health, and both retired from the store, Giles H., exchanging his interest for a farm belonging to Chauncey Turner in Mansfield, to which point he removed at once. Farm life restored his health, and after about two years he was again strong and rugged. According[ly] he sold the farm and became a traveling salesman for the Upson Nut Co., of Unionville, Conn. He came into contact with machine manufacturers, and for eight years followed the road. During this time his family lived at Unionville, but later removed to Willimantic. It was also during this time that Mr. Alford bought the bankrupt hardware stock of Mr. Simpson, and put it in charge of his oldest son. Upon his retirement from the road he went into this business himself. C. N. Andrew was at one time a partner with him, and later bought his interest in that store. At a later period Mr. Alford opened the hardware store where he is found at the present time, in company with his son, the firm being G. H. Alford & Son. This son was Howard R. Alford, and on his death, his brother, Carl R., succeeded to his interest, and the firm is unchanged in its title.

After his death, his widow, Adeline C Cadwell, and unmarried daughter Adelaide Louise Alford, a member of the D.A.R., lived in the house.