Memorial Town Hall in Madison was built in 1897 to honor the town’s Civil War veterans. Vincent Meigs Wilcox, a wealthy merchant, was donor to both the hall and another, more traditional Civil War monument, the Wilcox Soldiers’ Monument. The building originally served as a community center, becoming Madison’s Town Hall in 1938. A new town hall was built in 1995, but the old hall continues to house some municipal offices, meeting rooms, and the Charlotte L. Evarts Memorial Archives.
The house at 467 Quaker Farms Road in Oxford was built in 1836 by William Tomlinson. It was next owned by Stephen S. Mallett, who sold it in 1899 to Charles Davis, a prominent farmer who was active at Christ Church, located directly across the street. After his death, the house was owned by his step-daughter, J. Mabel Lum (1880-1964), an influential citizen of Oxford who was also active at Christ Church. For a time the property was the Quaker Farms Nursery.
The house at 714 Tolland Stage Road in Tolland was built circa 1790 as a saltbox. After a fire in 1868, the house was rebuilt in the Italianate style by Dr. Gilbert Preston, who owned it from 1845 until his death in 1883. Many of Dr. Preston’s medical instruments and other items are on display at the Old Jail Museum in Tolland. The house was later the residence of Dr. Preston’s daughter Sarah (1854-1939). As related in the Commemorative Biographical Record of Tolland and Windham Counties (1903):
[Henry Young] was married second, April 21, 1896, to Sarah C. (Preston) Lathrop, of Tolland, a daughter of Dr. Gilbert H. and Sarah (Cogswell) Preston, the former of whom was for many years the leading physician of Tolland, where his personal standing was also very high.
The house was next owned by Sarah’s granddaughter, Florence Edith Meacham Anderson (1900-1966). In 1997 the then owner replaced the original wraparound porch with the current entry portico and added a sunroom on the south side.
Originally the residence of M. L. Seymour, the house at 37 Prospect Place in Bristol, built in 1878, is thought to have been erected by builder Joel T. Case. Its original door was located just to the left of the large window on the front facade. The current entry hall on the left and the front porch were added around 1900.
The church at 23 Franklin Street, at the corner of Arch Street, in Ansonia was built between 1900 and 1906: it does not appear on the 1900 Sanborn insurance map, but does appear on the 1906 Sanborn map, where it is labeled “Swedish Church.” In recent years it was the Evangelical Baptist Church (founded in 1958). It was placed on the market in August 2015 and was sold last July. It is now I Am That I Am Ministries Inc.
The red brick commercial building at 55 Wall Street in Norwalk was built circa 1890. The ground floor has a modern storefront.
A volunteer fire company, initially called Ocean Fire Company #1, was formed in Seymour in October 1882. The following month it was renamed Humphrey Engine and Hose Company #1 and in 1884, after the purchase of a new steam engine, was reorganized as Citizens Engine Company No.2. The company’s original firehouse was replaced with a new brick building with granite trim (current address 26 DeForest Street) in 1892. The tower was added in 1897 and a concrete addition was built in 1976.
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