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

First Church of West Hartford (1946)

An Ecclesiastical Society to serve the West Division of Hartford (now the Town of West Hartford) was first established c. 1712. A series of meetinghouses have stood in the vicinity of the intersection of Main Street and Farmington Avenue in West Hartford Center. The original meetinghouse, erected c. 1712, was replaced by a new one, erected between 1742 and 1744. The Society’s next three meetinghouses reflected changes in architectural taste during the nineteenth century and into the early twentieth century. In 1834 the Society voted to erect a new building that was designed in the fashionable Greek Revival style. In 1882, the congregation moved into their fourth building, called the Greystone Church, a granite edifice designed by George E. Potter in the popular Gothic Revival style. By the early twentieth century, the Colonial Revival was dominant and plans for a new building in that style were already underway when the Greystone Church was destroyed in a fire on January 3, 1942. The basement floors were completed by November 1943 and services were held there until the sanctuary of the new First Church of West Hartford was built in 1946, after delays caused by material shortages during World War II. The chapel was built in 1956.

Southport Eastbound Railroad Station (1884)

The community of Southport in the town of Fairfield has two historic railroad stations (one eastbound and one westbound) on the New Haven Line of the Metro-North Railroad (originally a line of the the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad). The older of the two is the eastbound station, built in 1884 to replace an earlier railroad depot destroyed in a fire. It is typical of the brick stations that were built in Connecticut in the 1880s, but with more than usual attention to its decorative roof that reflects the High Victorian Gothic and Eastlake styles. No longer used as a station, the building is now home to Paci Restaurant. (more…)

Morgan-Lockwood House (1860)

The Morgan-Lockwood House is a French Second Empire-style residence with a Mansard roof located at 3 East Wall Street in Norwalk. The house, which is now “Wall Street Manor” apartments (it was divided into smaller units in 1944), was built c. 1860. It has a Colonial Revival veranda added c. 1900.

Watrous-Morse House (1840)

In 1837 Richard N. Watrous purchased land in Chester where by 1840 he had built the house that stands at 80 West Main Street. In 1842 the property was acquired by Luther Morse who established a livery business. In 1837 he married Abigail Watrous. The livery was continued into the twentieth century by their son Martin and his daughter Stella Morse Crook.

Henry L. Stewart House (1865)

John Stewart and his son Henry L. Stewart were a storekeepers and shipbuilders in Middle Haddam. After John’s death in 1860, Henry erected a brick Gothic Revival house at 94 Moodus Road and turned to farming. the house took five years to build (1860-1865) because local builders were serving in the Civil War.

Jonathan Collins House (1865)

The house at 101 East Main Street in Branford was built c. 1865. By 1868 it was owned by Jonathan Collins, who is listed in 1868 the Beers, Ellis & Soule map of Branford as a shoe manufacturer. In 1872 the house was sold to William Regan, who worked at the Branford Lock Works. In 1877 Regan filed a patent for an improvement in attaching knobs to spindles.

Alpha Delta Phi Society (1906)

The Middletown chapter of the Alpha Delta Phi literary society, based at Wesleyan University, was formed in 1856. The fraternity’s first chapter house was built in 1884. It was demolished twenty years later and replaced on the same lot (185 High Street) by the current building (completed in 1906) designed by Charles Alonzo Rich (who also designed two dozen buildings at Dartmouth College between 1893 and 1914). An addition was built onto the rear in 1925. Alpha Delta Phi has been coed since 1972 and is one of the coed chapters that withdrew from the fraternity to form the separate Alpha Delta Phi Society in 1992.