Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church, Meriden (1936)

In the 1870s, Italian immigrants began settling in the northwest corner of Meriden. For many years they attended existing Catholic churches in the city, but soon wanted to found their own parish. The Diocese of Hartford established Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish in 1894. The first parish church was a wooden building on Goodwill Avenue. The current church, located at 109 Goodwill Avenue, was dedicated on February 16, 1936. Our Lady of Mt. Carmel School was established in 1944 after the parish purchased the Nathan Hale Public School from the city of Meriden. In recent years, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel and St. Laurent Parishes in Meriden shared a priest. Earlier this year, as part of a reorganization throughout the Archdiocese of Hartford, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, St. Laurent and three other parishes merged to form the new Our Lady Queen of Angels Parish, based at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church.

Atlantic Screw Works (1902)

At the corner of Charter Oak Avenue and Wyllys Street in Hartford is a former factory complex erected by the Atlantic Screw Works, which built machines to manufacture screws. The company was established in 1877 in New York State, but moved to Hartford in 1879. It was originally based in rented space in the Colt Armory. By 1902 the company was ready to erect its own building. The earliest section of their new factory (on the right in the image above) was built in 1902-1903. The longer section (on the left in the image above), designed by Davis & Brooks, was built c. 1910 and more than doubled the company’s operating capabilities. The company lasted into the 1970s and the building was converted to office space in the 1980s.

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Daniel Bryan House (1890)

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.

Mitchell-Williams Store (1904)

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.

Clark Memorial Library (1936)

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.