Ponemah Mills, in operation from the 1870s to the 1970s, was a cotton textile manufacturer with a massive mill complex in the village of Taftville in Norwich. Along Norwich Avenue can be found Mill #1, built in 1871, and Mill #2, built in 1884. In 1929, the company erected a building for its offices, attached to Mill #2, directly in front of that structure’s north tower. The building is now home to Amazing Furniture. The former mill buildings are now being converted into luxury apartments.
The original St. Colman’s Catholic Church in Middlefield stood at the corner of Main and Stow Streets. The cornerstone was laid in 1886 and the church opened its doors on August 7, 1887. Construction was completed in 1889 and fourteen stained glass windows were installed the following year. It was a mission church under St. John Parish in Middletown until 1903, when it became a mission of the newly formed St. Francis Parish in Middletown. The last service in the old church was held on September 16, 1962, the same day that the new Church of St. Colman, located at 170 Hubbard Street, was dedicated. The church was granted full parish status in 1964.
The summer cottage at 11 Pettipaug Avenue in the Borough of Fenwick in Old Saybrook was built in 1910 for the Hall and Wilson families. It was erected on what had previously been the site of the 1885 cottage of Henry Morgan. That cottage was long rented by John Henry Hall and his family. Hall was one of the family that owned the Portland brownstone quarries and was a president of Colt Firearms. The Halls purchased the Morgan Cottage in 1901 and sold it to Ernest Wilson, who moved it to its current address at 4 Agawam Avenue. The Halls then built the current cottage, which was later owned by their grandson, John C. Wilson, Jr. You can read more about the cottage in Marion Hepburn Grant’s The Fenwick Story (Connecticut Historical Society, 1974), pages 114-115.
The house at 86 Central Avenue in East Hartford was built between 1894 and 1903 by Joseph Hamilton, a clerk. He acquired the property from P. Boyle, who had acquired it from Patrick Garvan, who developed Garvan Street. It was one of several lots acquired by Garvan in 1871. This well-preserved example of the Queen Anne style displays the use of contrasting siding on two different stories.
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.
The Old Mystic National Bank began as the Mystic Bank in 1833. It was established in a newly-built granite building in the village of Old Mystic in Stonington, which was a commercial center at the time. By 1856, business had grown to an extent that a larger building was required. It was erected of brick in the center of the village of Old Mystic. The iron bars across the windows were added after a attempted burglary in 1884. The institution became a national bank in 1865 and continued in business until undergoing a voluntary liquidation in 1887. By that time the village of Mystic to the south had become the local business hub instead of Old Mystic. After the bank closed, the 1856 building was sold to the town of Stonington in 1889. It was used as a District Hall for voting until the 1960s. During World War II, the Reliance Fire Company of Old Mystic used the attached back shed as a Civil Defense headquarters. It was later used to store fire equipment. In 1965, the building was sold to the Indian and Colonial Research Center. The ICRC is a non-profit organization that preserves the preserves the papers and collections of Eva L. Butler (1887-1969), a noted anthropologist, archeologist, historian, and naturalist.
Now located at Mystic Seaport, the Mystic Bank was originally built in 1833 in Old Mystic, at the head of the Mystic River. The first president of the bank was Elias Brown and the first cashier was George W. Noyes, who later held the same position at the Mystic River Bank. The Mystic Bank moved its operations to a new brick building in 1856. The first floor of the old bank building then became the post office and the upper floor was used as a carpenter’s shop. The building would be used for different purposes over the years until 1948-1951, when it was moved to Mystic Seaport. The current front portico is a reproduction of the original. (more…)
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