The house at 104 Silver Lane in East Hartford is a classic colonial saltbox. It was built c. 1785-1786 as a small three-room cottage with a rear shed roof by Abraham Clark, who had acquired the land in 1785. The structure was expanded into a five-bay saltbox around 1814 when there was a blacksmith shop just west of the house. There is evidence a tunnel once connected the house with the Hockanum River, about 250 yards away.
On April 22, 1834, Methodists in Cheshire formed a building committee to undertake the construction of a meeting house. Called the Wesley Chapel, it is one of the last examples in the country of a chapel designed by John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. As related in Joseph Perkins Beach’s History of Cheshire, Connecticut (1912):
A lot of land centrally located was purchased of Jairus Bunnell, on which was built a brick structure at a cost of $3,000. This was dedicated Nov. 22, 1834, by Rev. Schuyler Seager. During the working of the bartyes mines, the congregation greatly increased and the church and finances were in a flourishing condition; the decrease in numbers caused by the removal of so many families has made the work of the (comparatively) few left much harder; but no diminution of ardor or enthusiasm has ever been noted.
A wooden belfry was added to the building in 1870, but it blew down during a storm in 1897. Church membership began to increase with the growth of Cheshire’s population after World War II. In 1959, the church acquired land at 205 Academy Road for future expansion and eventually decided to erect a new building at that location. The new Cheshire United Methodist Church was completed by February, 1970. The church had already sold its 1834 building to Temple Beth David, the town’s first Jewish synagogue, in 1968. The two congregations shared the old building until the new church was ready. In 1984, Temple Beth David completed phase one of an expansion. The building has a Colonial Revival style front entrance vestibule that was expanded southward to link with the new addition.
A library association was first organized in Andover in 1885. In 1896 the public library was housed in the Congregational Church Conference House. A dedicated library building, called the Burnap Skinner Memorial Library, was opened at 355 Route 6 in 1927. It is now called the Andover Public Library.
In 1923, the Connecticut General Assembly approved funding for an armory in Manchester to house the town’s National Guard units. A drill shed was soon erected at 330 Main Street, followed by the remainder of the building (the front facade of the head house) after additional funds were approved in 1925. Designed in a military Gothic style by the New London architectural firm of Payne and Keefe, the Manchester Armory represents a move away from the picturesque castellated Gothic armories that were built in Connecticut in the first two decades of the twentieth century towards a more streamlined and rigidly symmetrical form related to the emerging Art Deco style. Earlier this year the state sold the armory, which had become vacant, to private owners who plan to convert it into offices and an automotive restoration shop.
At the corner of State and North Streets in Guilford is a house (1 North Street) built circa 1750. The Greek Revival front door-surround was added later. The house is named for Samuel Lee (1742-1819), who served in the Coast Guard during the Revolutionary War and was promoted to captain just before the war ended. The house may also have been erected later, around the time of Lee’s marriage to Agnes Dickinson in 1763. There are many stories of Agnes Lee’s bravery during the Revolution when her husband was frequently absent. As recounted in Old Paths and Legends of the New England Border (1907), by Katharine M. Abbott:
Agnes Lee, the wife of Captain Samuel Lee of the Harbor Guard, was a noted foe to Tories. Powder was stored in the attic: one dark night a Tory knocked at her door, when Captain Lee was on duty; “Who’s there?” — “A friend.” — “No, a friend would tell his name,” answered Mrs. Lee, and fired. An hour later, an old doctor of North Guilford was summoned to attend a mysterious gun-shot wound. When the British landed at Leete’s Island, Captain Lee fired the agreed signal; “Grandma Lee responded by blazing away on the cannon set at the head of Crooked Lane, for she had not a son, and Uncle Levi was a cripple.”
According to another account, armed Torries actually burst in and she held them off until her husband arrived to shoot them. On another occasion, Lee barn caught fire and its sparks threatened the powder stored in the attic of the house. With no one else to save the house, Agnes Lee rushed upstairs and closed the the attic window to shut out the dangerous sparks. She later remarked that she hadn’t expected to come back down the stairs alive. The Guilford chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution is named for Agnes Dickinson Lee.
Samuel’s mother and his brother, Levi, also lived with them in the house. In 1794, Levi and his mother sold the house to William Starr, Sr. At that time, Samuel and Agnes built a new house at 292 State Street.
In 1836, Charles Smith (1807-1893) built a Greek Revival house on Main Street in South Windham. The following year, he and Harvey Winchester bought a nearby factory that they used for the manufacture of paper, forming the Smith & Winchester Company. Charles Smith‘s son, Guilford Smith (1839-1923), was born in the house. He was a wealthy philanthropist who left $25,000 for the establishment of a library in South Windham. A trust and Board of Trustees were established for in 1930 and the new Guilford Smith Memorial Library, occupying the old Smith House, opened on April 4, 1931.
At 1393 South Main Street in Cheshire is a Victorian house built in 1903 by Elmer Ives. On the same property, known as Ives Corner, Ives erected a small store building. Calling it the “Why Not Rest” store, he sold tobacco, candy, soda and patent medicine. It was also a trolley freight station. The store was destroyed in 1953 when it was hit by an out-of-control vehicle.
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