Historic Buildings of Connecticut - Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Isaac Goodell House (1828)

The house at 318 Phoenixville Road in Chaplin was built c. 1828 by Isaac Goodell. It was later owned by Lester Bill and Newell C. Hunt. Jesse Hunt sold the house to George England in 1905.

The house at 4 Oakland Street in Bristol was built in 1917 and came to be well-known as an exemplar of the Colonial/Georgian Revival style after it was featured in the Christmas 1920 issue of House Beautiful (“An Adaptation of the Colonial House,” by Alexander E. Hoyle). Designed by Goodell & Root, the house was built for Newell Jennings (1883-1965), who (starting in 1910) practiced law with his uncle, Roger S. Newell, in the firm of Newell & Jennings. The year the house was built, Jennings was appointed assistant state attorney. He was later a Hartford Superior Court judge.

Edwin Griswold House (1838)

Edwin Griswold (1813-1897) built the house at 33 Main Street in Ivoryton in 1838, on land he had purchased from his father, Daniel Griswold. Edwin was the partner of Samuel Merritt Comstock in the combmaking firm of Comstock & Griswold. Comstock had a house nearly identical to Griswold’s built at the same time on the other side of Bracket Lane. In 1903 the house was acquired by Clarence Bushnell. He and Linwell Behrens were bicycle salesmen who in 1904 started Behrens and Bushnell, one of the first auto dealerships in Middlesex County. The house was later owned by Comstock, Cheney & Co. and was also a parsonage of the Ivoryton Congregational Church.

Abner Kirtland House (1767)

The house at 19 Union Street in Deep River was built c. 1767 by Lieut. Abner Kirtland (1745-1834). He was the son of Capt. Philip Kirtland (1693-1764), one of the first settlers of what would become Deep River. Abner Kirtland served in the Revolutionary War, being commissioned 1st Lt. in Col. William Worthington’s Regiment of the 7th Conn. Militia in 1780.

Holy Rosary Church (1967)

Bishop John J. Nilan created Holy Rosary Catholic parish in 1908 to serve Ansonia’s Italian immigrants. The parish worshiped at the former Assumption Parish Church on Main Street (a new Assumption Church had just been erected on North Cliff Street). A new Holy Rosary Church, built at 10 Father Salemi Drive, was dedicated in 1967.

Capt. Dolbeare House (1855)

The Capt. Dolbeare House, located at 70 North Cove Road in Old Saybrook, is an 1855 ship captain’s home. The house was enlarged and remodeled in 1931, at which time the two-story colonnade on the west gable end was most likely added. The house was renovated by developer John Aldi in the 1990s.

Grantmoor Motor Lodge (1959)

When it opened in 1959, the stylishly modern Grantmoor Motor Lodge, 3000 Berlin Turnpike in Newington, was billed as “Gracious Grantmoor” and offered travelers a pool, golf course and restaurant/banquet hall (the latter added in 1960). When I-91 was built in 1965 it bypassed traffic away from the Turnpike and the Grantmoor soon switched to a more adult theme that included mirrors on the ceilings. (more…)