Located next door to the E. Allen Moore House on Sunnyledge Street in New Britain is the house built for Moore’s friend, James S. North, at 9 Sunnyledge. North was president of the C. J. White Manufacturing Company, makers of hose-supports and garters. He was later the superintendent of the New Britain General Hospital. Before moving to Sunnyledge, North had previously lived at 21 Franklin Square. His stuccoed house on Sunnyledge, built in 1913, was designed by architect William F. Brooks.
In 1899 work began on a large Colonial Revival mansion, completed in 1900 in what had been a field just southwest of Walnut Hill Park in New Britain. It was erected by E. Allen Moore, son of the artist Nelson Augustus Moore (1824-1902). In 1899 Ethelbert Allen Moore was a manufacturing superintendent at the Stanley Works and would become the company‘s president in 1918. He retired in 1929 and in 1950 published his book Tenth Generation, a history of the Moore family in America. In 1891 Morse had married Martha Elizabeth, daughter of William H. Hart, then president of Stanley Works. She named the new property “Sunnyledge,” after a traprock ledge just west of the house. The new road they opened was called Sunnyledge Street. The house was designed by William F. Brooks of Davis & Brooks, with two later additions by architect Oliver M. Wiard.
Known as the Carriage House, the building at 486 Quaker Farms Road in Oxford was built c. 1800 as a carriage manufactory. The building has been a residence since 1869.
The house at 508 Amity Road in Bethany was built in 1855 to serve as the parsonage for the Bethany Congregational Church. It was erected by designer-builder Col. Alvan Sperry (1786-1861). The Congregational Society had originally acquired the property in 1850. At that time the old Hezekiah Thomas Hotel still stood on the property. Parts of that building may have been incorporated into the new parsonage. Part of the hotel had been a 1750 structure, originally located at Rocky Corner, that had served as a school and early parish meeting-place. C. 1775 the building was moved to Bethany Green. It is described as follows in W. C. Sharpe’s Bethany Sketches and Records (1908):
More than a century ago a schoolhouse was standing on “Meeting House Hill,” near Bethany Green. It was in the Middle District. The building was two stories in height, the upper part being the Masonic Hall. It was near the meeting house, and was heated each Sunday, in order that the congregation might repair hither between the services.
In 1802 the South, West, and Middle Districts were consolidated into the Union District, which was eventually called the Center. When a new schoolhouse was built the old one was bought by Hezekiah Thomas. [In 1834] It was drawn across the valley to a site near the churches and served as a hall to a hotel built by Mr. Thomas. The hall was demolished about twentyfive years ago [1875] by the owner, Mr. [S]Perry.
The same book states that Hezekiah Thomas,
brother of David Thomas, was the first town clerk. He was proprietor of the Hezekiah Thomas hotel, which later became the Congregational parsonage. He married Chloe Beecher. Their daughter, Tabitha, married Isaac Jones.
The Crocker House is a five-story luxury hotel built at 180 State Street in New London in 1872. The project was inspired by A. N. Ramsdell, president of the New London Railroad and the New London City Bank. The hotel was named for Henry Scudder Crocker, its first proprietor, who who was also the manager of the elite Pequot House summer resort. The Crocker House‘s Mansard-roofed top floor was later destroyed in a fire. An addition to the building, designed by architect James Sweeney, was erected in 1914. Playwright Eugene O’Neill could often be found in the hotel’s bar. Today the former hotel is the Crocker House Apartments. (more…)
William Shelton (1805-1860) was a hat maker in Windsor who filled orders for customers as far away as Philadelphia. In 1830 he built the transitional Federal/Greek Revival house at 40 Pleasant Street. It was constructed of bricks from William Mack’s brickyard, which opened that year at the foot (east end) of Pleasant Street. Behind Shelton’s house was an industrial area along Mill Brook where he made his hats. The house currently contains antique furniture that was brought back from the attic and barn and restored.
Grace Baptist Church in Bristol was founded in 1888 and was originally known as the Swedish Baptist Church. The name was later changed when its parishioners began to include many who were not of Swedish descent. The church was located on Goodwin Street until 1942 when it moved into a converted residence at 38 Prospect Place. Outgrowing the building, a new church was built at the corner of King Street and Louisiana Avenue, completed in 1957. (For more info, see: “Baptist Church Launches $40,000 Building Drive,” Hartford Courant, February 5, 1955).
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