In 1889, Daniel Bryan acquired the lot at 54 Wells Avenue and soon after erected the house that still stands there. Its gables are shingled and have decorated bargeboards and there is a distinctive circular corner porch. Bryan was a farmer, a janitor at East Hartford’s Wells Hall and the High School, and by 1900 was Superintendent of Center Cemetery. He was possibly the Daniel L. Bryan, whose years were 1855-1921.
Featuring a distinctive “picturesque vernacular” design, the general store at 667 South Britain Road in Southbury has served the village of South Britain since it was built in 1903-1904. It was originally the store of George W. Mitchell, who built it on the site of a previous store that had burned. Mitchell also had interests in Kansas, where he was president of the Goodrich Cattle Company. Mitchell‘s daughter Abbie Evelyn married Charles Williams, who succeeded his father-in-law as proprietor in 1926. The second floor of the building has apartments. The store is also notable for having a cast iron storefront manufactured by the George L. Mesker Company of Evansville, Indiana.
A private library, called the Bethany Union Library, used to meet between 1798 and 1812 at the home of Capt. Isaac Judd. In 1930, residents of Bethany seeking to start a public library for the town, met at the home of Treat B. Johnson (1875-1947), a Yale chemistry professor and a descendant of two of the founding members of the original library. In 1936 a town library was finally erected at 538 Amity Road through the gift of Noyes Clark in memory of his parents.
Dating to about 1792, the house at 1460 Meriden Avenue in Southington was built for Avery Clark (1769-1850) and Anna Walkley Clark (1775-1856), who came to Southington from Durham. The house remained in the Clark family for five generations.
The Fox Block, or Fox Building, at 88-92 West Main Street, corner of Butler Street, in Meriden, was built in 1905. It was designed by the Meriden architect David B. Bloomfield.
On the campus of Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford is the Seymour St. John Chapel, built in 1924. Designed by noted collegiate and ecclesiastical architect Ralph Adams Cram, it was originally named St. Andrew Chapel. In 1998, it was renamed in honor of Rev. Seymour St. John (1912-2006), who served as the school’s headmaster from 1947 to 1973. Over a decade ago the Chapel underwent a major renovation. In addition to repairs and updates to the building, the clock tower’s 10-bell Meneely Bell Co. Chime was also extensively restored and reconnected to the Chapel’s original Seth Thomas clock.
One of the buildings at Mystic Seaport is set up to represent the American Seamen’s Friend Society Sailor’s Reading Room. The Society was incorporated in 1833 to provide moral and religious alternatives to the saloons, boardinghouses and brothels frequented by sailors while in port. The organization is best known for the libraries it placed aboard American ships for the use of sailors. The Society’s records are now held the Collections Research Center at Mystic Seaport. This historic organization is interpreted for Mystic Seaport visitors in a building erected c. 1841 as a work shop and tool shed by Clark Greenman of the George Greenman & Co. Shipyard. Starting in 1951, it was used as the Seaport’s Children’s museum, before housing the Reading Room exhibit. The building originally stood where the Treworgy Planetarium was built in 1960. It was moved to its current location in 1959. (more…)
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