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

St Philip the Apostle Church (1937)

St. Philip the Apostle Church, 64 Pompey Hollow Road in the Warrenville section of Ashford, was built of native stone in the 1930s through the efforts of the local farming community. Most were of Slovak descent and the church has a Byzantine copper onion dome. The church was erected through the leadership of Father William J. Dunn, who was sent to the new parish, which originally encompassed nine rural towns in eastern Connecticut, in 1921 and celebrated Masses in the old farmhouse in which he lived until the new church was completed. It was designed by New York architect Paul Chalfin, a summer resident of Warrenville.

Dr. Samuel Rose House (1775)

The house at 54 High Street in Coventry was built in 1775 by Dr. Samuel Rose (1748-1780). An army surgeon in the Revolutionary War, Dr. Rose married Nathan Hale‘s sister Elizabeth in 1773. In the the nineteenth century the house was used as a tavern. It remained in the Rose family until the death of Royal Rose at age 95 in 1951.

Dr. M. L. Fisk House (1850)

The Italianate house at 108 Main Street in Warehouse Point, East Windsor was built c. 1850. It soon became the home of Dr. Marcus Lyon Fisk, who is described in Vol. II of Henry R. Stiles History and Genealogies of Ancient Windsor (1892):

Marcus was dependent for educational advantages upon the public schools, the village academy, and private tutors, all of which he improved to the utmost degree. Likewise, as a traditional New Englander, he taught school for several terms at different places in Conn., R. I., and Mass. Deciding upon the medical profession, he made for it a very thorough preparation. After enjoying the preceptorship of Dr. Alden Skinner of Vernon, Conn., Dr, Robert Grosvenor of Killingly, Conn., and Dr. Wm. Grosvenor of Providence, R. I., he completed his course of study at the Berkshire Medical College, Pittsfield, Mass., then an institution of much celebrity. He then went to Philadelphia, and became a private pupil of the distinguished Dr. Geo. McClellan, founder of both the Jefferson and the Pennsylvania Medical Colleges. Entering the latter, in which Dr. McC. was then a Professor, he was grad. with the degree of M.D., 4 Mch., 1842.

He soon after established himself in East Windsor, Conn., at Broad Brook, where he remained until the autumn of 1864, when, on the death of Dr. Joseph Olmsted of Warehouse Point (E. W.) and at the solicitation of the people of that part of the town, he rem. thither, spending there the remainder of his life, and dying there 2 April, 1883.

Among physicians Dr. F. was widely known and honored as a Fellow of the Conn. Med. Society, and as one of its oldest members. An experience of over forty years gained him the reputation which carried his practice also into six or seven of the towns adjoining his own. His splendid skill and talents were always at the, service of every one who needed them. He was quick and accurate in diagnosis, sanguine, confident, hope-inspiring to his patients; never at a loss for an expedient; always present-minded and full of resources. To the last, even with Death’s hand upon him, he toiled to relieve human suffering.

John McKinstry House (1730)

Rev. John McKinstry (1677-1754) was the first minister of Ellington’s Congregational Church. His house, most likely the oldest in Ellington, was built in 1730 and was moved to its present address at 85 Maple Street in 1815 from north of where the Hall Memorial Library was later built.

Jerijah Loomis House (1720)

The house at 234 Hebron Road in Bolton was built c. 1720 by its first owner, Jerijah Loomis (1707-1790), on land that was the original homelot of his father, Ensign Nathaniel Loomis. The house has later alterations, c. 1820, in the Greek Revival style and an addition on the right built c. 1855.

A. J. Muzzy House (1880)

The house at 47 Prospect Place in Bristol was built c. 1880 for A.J Muzzy, an active businessman and politician who, explains his biography in Taylor’s Souvenir of the Capitol (1899), was “popularly known as the ‘Bristol hustler.'” As related in this same biography:

Hon. Adrian J. Muzzy of Bristol, republican senator from the Fourth district, is a highly honored native and merchant of Bristol, and was born January 24, 1851. He received an excellent education in the public schools. At the age of nineteen he formed a copartnership under the style of W. & A. J. Muzzy and carried on a flour and feed business at the old Downs’ mill. In August of 1873, with T. F. Barbour, he opened a store for the sale of clothing and gentlemen’s furnishings, under the name of Barbour & Muzzy. In September, 1876, he sold out his interests in W. & A. J. Muzzy and Barbour & Muzzy and succeeded O. B. Ives in the dry goods business at the Riverside Avenue store. In January of 1883 he admitted his brother, F. L. Muzzy, as a partner. The firm has built up, as it highly deserves, the largest business in that section of the state. Mr. Muzzy was the chief promoter, and one of the charter members of the Bristol and Plainville Tramway Co., and is at present a director and its secretarv. He is also president of the Masonic Building Co., a member of the Masonic Chapter, Royal Arcanum, Son of the American Revolution and Country Club. On May 22, 1873, he married Florence E. Downs of Bristol. They have one child living, Adnenne F., born April 19, 1885.

In 1912, Muzzy gave the city of Bristol land for a ballpark in memory of two sons who died young. Muzzy Field opened in 1914.

Eli Phelps House (1860)

Eli Phelps was a prosperous tobacco farmer in Windsor. Around 1860 he built the impressive Italianate house that stands at 18 Marshall Phelps Road in Poquonock. As related in the Commemorative Biographical Record of Hartford County (1901):

Hon. Eli Phelps was born at Poquonock, Sept, 1, 1807, and had only such educational advantages as the local schools of that day provided. He was but a young man when his father died, and as the only son the care of the estate fell to him before he had a chance to acquire business experience, yet he managed affairs with conspicuous ability and became one of the most successful farmers of the town, obtaining good results under all circumstances. For some years after his marriage he resided at his father’s old home, later locating at the farm now occupied by our subject. While he left a handsome estate to his children, he was never grasping or unduly economical, and many worthy enterprises were helped forward by his liberality. He was a man of fine physique, six feet tall, weighing 200 pounds, and his mental ability was above the average, his reading and observation enabling him to gain a wide range of practical knowledge. He took an active interest in religious work, serving as treasurer of the Ecclesiastical Society of his town for a long time, and politically he was prominent as a member of the local Democratic organization. At various times he held offices in his town, and for several years he was a member of the General Assembly. He died Sept. 1, 1879, and his remains now rest in the cemetery at Poquonock.