Abington Congregational Church (1751)

The oldest ecclesiastical building in the State of Connecticut that has been continuously used for its original religious purpose is the Abington Congregational Church in the Town of Pomfret. Overcrowding at the Pomfret meetinghouse, as well as the great distance residents from the Abington section of town had to travel to attend services there, led to the creation of a separate ecclesiastical society in Abington 1749. The new congregation erected its own meetinghouse in 1751, a building that is one of the few surviving examples in New England of eighteenth-century peg and beam construction. The building was completely remodeled in the Greek Revival style between 1834 and 1840 by the architect-builder Edwin Fitch of Mansfield. Among various interior and exterior alterations, Fitch created a new facade featuring four Doric pilasters and replaced the church‘s 1802 bell tower with the current three-stage steeple.

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William Bevin House (1757)

One of the oldest houses in East Hampton is the colonial saltbox at 53 Barton Hill Road. It was erected circa 1748-1757 by William Bevin, who died in 1793 at the age of 83. The property was maintained by William’s son Isaac Bevin, Sr. (1746-1791) and grandson Isaac Bevin, Jr. (1773-1870), who married Anna Avery of Glastonbury in 1800. In 1832, their sons, William, Chauncy and Abner, later joined by a fourth brother Philo, started Bevin Brothers Manufacturing Company, a bell foundry that is still in business today.

John Batty House (1842)

John Batty House in Mystic

At 18 Pearl Street in Mystic is a Greek Revival style house built in 1842. It was originally the home of John Batty, a spar maker in Mystic’s ship-building industry. As described in the nomination form for the Mystic River Historic District, the house’s “pediment has two right-angle triangular windows with diagonal muntins that form horizontal diamond glazing. The front wall under the pediment is flush vertical boards.”

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New Video: Hartford, Connecticut’s Lost Governor Street

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This is a video about Governor Street, a partially lost street in Hartford, Connecticut. It was once the home of five governors of Connecticut, one from the 1850s and four from the 1600s! Part of the street was lost to the Sheldon Oak development and the rest was renamed Popieluszko Court. Besides being a residential street for early governors, it was a manufacturing area and a center for the Polish-American community. #hartfordhistory #hartford #hartfordct #danielsternervideos