Guilford Smith House (1877)

Guilford Smith (1839-1923), who left his childhood home in South Windham to become a library, built his own house nearby in 1877. Located at 9 Main Street, it is an elaborately decorated Victorian residence. According to a biography of Smith in Legislative History and Souvenir of Connecticut, Vol. VII (1910):

Guilford Smith, of Windham, who was horn in South Windham. May 12, 1839, is the son Charles and Mary A. Smith, and is descended from Governor William Bradford of the Mayflower colony. He was educated in the public schools of his native town and at Hall’s School at Ellington. When nineteen years of age, he entered the office of Smith, Winchester & Co., as a clerk, passing through all the departments. Upon the death of his father, he succeeded him, being now president and treasurer of the now The Smith. Winchester Mfg. Co. He is also president of the Windham National Bank of Willimantic, a director of the New London and Northern Railway, and president of St. Joseph’s Hospital, Willimantic. On December 16, 1863, Mr. Smith married Mary Ramsdall. daughter of Thomas and Mary Elizabeth (Lathrop) Ramsdall. He is one of the leading citizens of South Windham, is active in church and civil affairs, has represented his town in the General Assembly in 1883, and filled various local official stations. He is a member of the Ecclesiastical Society of the Congregational Church, whose house of worship was built chiefly at his expense. He is also a member of the Society of Mayflower descendants. He faithfully served as a member of the Committee on Banks [in the State Assembly].

Ivoryton Congregational Church (1888)

In the mid-nineteenth century, Ivoryton in Essex developed as a factory village around Comstock, Cheney & Company, manufacturers of products made from ivory. The heirs of company founder Samuel Merritt Comstock, under the leadership of Harriet Comstick, erected the Comstock Memorial Chapel in 1887-1888. As a mission of the Centerbrook Congregational Church, the Chapel allowed church members in Ivoryton to attend services closer to their homes. In 1898 the building became the property of the new Ivoryton Congregational Church, which had become a separate church from the one in Centerbrook. The Ivoryton Church, located at 57 Main Street, was enlarged in 1906. In 2017, the congregation, which now has approximately 25 active members, decided to put the church building on the market. It was acquired by a developer who plans to convert the building into condominiums. The final service in the church was held on October 1, 2017. The congregation now holds services at the Essex Congregational Church.

Deacon Darius Knight House (1825)

The house at 93 Chaplin Street in Chaplin has been dated variously to 1840, 1832 and 1825. It was the home of Deacon Darius Knight. The house next south on Chaplin Street, just past the intersection with Tower Hill Road (87 Chaplin Street), was the home of E. W. Day, so the intersection became known as Knight and Day Corner. The Knight House was later home to a minister and a doctor.

Old Basket Shop, Silvermine (1850)

The historic structure at 187 Perry Avenue, in the Silvermine section of Norwalk, was built c. 1850. It is located along the Silvermine River, just next to the Perry Avenue Bridge. Often called the Blacksmith Shop, it was used as a basketmaker’s shop in the later nineteenth century and is now a residence. Frank Townsend Hutchens, a painter, purchased the building in 1913 and it has since been owned by a succession of singers, writers, and sculptors over the years, including Tony Balcom, an etcher, painter and illustrator and a founder of the Silvermine Guild of Artists in 1922.

Gardella Block (1880)

The two adjoining business blocks at 46-52 and 42-44 Main Street in Ansonia are both referred to as the Gardella Block in the nomination for the Upper Main Street Historic District. They are part of a row of five buildings (along with the Sentinel Block at 36 Main Street, the Hotchkiss Block at 54-64 Main Street, and the building at 70 Main Street) that were erected c. 1880 (or as early as sometime before 1875) by the W. & L. Hotchkiss Company and distributed after the company dissolved in 1885. George Gardella, who came to Ansonia from Italy in 1882, opened a fruit, nut and confectionery business on Maple Street 1883. He moved his business to 46 Main Street in 1910 and retired in 1931, passing his business to his two sons. Another notable Gardella in Ansonia was Pasquale Gardella, an Italian immigrant who ran a peanut stand at the Maple Street bridge. After the stand burned down about 1896 he rented a store in the Ansonia Opera House on Main Street.

Sentinel Block (1881)

The Ansonia Housing Authority is located at 36 Main Street in Ansonia, at the end of a row of adjoining commercial blocks on the west side of Main Street, just south of the intersection with the Maple Street Bridge. The building displays the date 1881 under its cornice. It is sometimes called the Sentinel Block (it is given this name in the nomination for the Upper Main Street Historic District) because it was once home to the the offices of the Naugatuck Sentinel newspaper. In the book Derby and Ansonia (in Arcadia Press’s Then and Now series, 2004), it is referred to as the Gardella Building, a name that the the Historic District nomination gives for the two adjacent buildings just to the south. (more…)