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

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.

Clinton AME Zion Church (1950)

Clinton AME Zion Church in Ansonia was originally organized in Derby in 1874/1875. Early meetings were held in a hall over J. P. Swift’s Store, later Pucella’s Garage, at the corner of New Haven Avenue and Gilbert Street in Derby. The church affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in 1882 and adopted the name its pastor, Rev. J. J. Clinton, in 1888, incorporating as Clinton Memorial AME Zion Church. A new church building was erected on Derby Avenue, but the church later decided to relocate to Ansonia, which had a growing African American population. According to Ansonia assessor’s information, the new church, located at 96 Central Street, was built in 1950. The church had to be repaired after it was damaged in the flood of 1956 (see “$5,800 Spells Restored Hopes For Flood-Hit Ansonia Church,” Hartford Courant, February 4, 1956).

Judea Parish House (1874)

On Washington Green is the H-shaped parish house of the First Congregational Church of Washington. It was erected in 1874 and was originally called The Hall on the Green. Owned by the Washington Hall and Conference Room Association, it served as a meeting hall, chapel and library. In 1927 it was deeded to the church and extensively remodeled. It was dedicated on June 21, 1929 and called the Judea Parish House after the original name of Washington’s church: the Parish of Judea.

The Old Manse, Willington (1728)

The house at 4 Jared Sparks Road in Willington, built before 1739 (a twentieth-century owner determined a date of 1728), has been designated as the town’s oldest house. It may have been built by John Watson, one of the town’s original proprietors who owned the property in 1727. It later served as the Congregational Church parsonage until 1911.

Amasa Reed House (1805)

The house at 108 Tolland Turnpike in Willington was most likely erected c. 1805-1806 by Amasa Reed. It was later owned by the stockholders of the Willington Glass Factory, erected across the street in 1815. William Shaffer, a glassblower, bought the house in 1825 and resided there until his death in 1899.

Willimantic Camp Meeting Association (1860-1948)

Camp meetings were a notable feature of religious life in nineteenth-century America and some continue in existence today. This site has already featured the Plainville Campground and Camp Bethel in Haddam. Another religious campground is the Willimantic Camp Meeting Association. It was established by Methodists who held the first meeting here on September 3, 1860. Today it is an interdenominational Evangelical Association. At its height the camp had 300 buildings, primarily cottages built by individual churches or families. A third of them were destroyed by the hurricane of 1938 and another hundred were lost to neglect over the ensuing decades. 100 cottages remain and constitute an architectural treasure. (more…)

Samuel and Thomas Scranton (1787)

The house at 107 State Street in Guilford was built in 1787 in the Federal style and has a later Greek Revival entryway. The house was built by two brothers, Samuel and Thomas Scranton, who were both farmers. It would become home to the brothers, their wives and their combined total of nine surviving children. It was inherited by Thomas Scranton, Jr.