In the third quarter of the nineteenth century, Neland Loomis of Suffield built a group of houses (which formed an enclave called “Baghdad”) on South Main Street to house his tobacco workers. Pictured above are the Greek Revival houses at 195-197 (left) and 183-185 (center), built c. 1850. On the left is building (173-179 South Main Street) erected in 1918 as a store with apartments above.
Next to 165-167 Bank Street (the gray building on the right in the image above) is 169 Bank Street, a brick building on the corner of Bank and Pearl Street. In the mid-nineteenth century this was the site of a market run by Francis Holt. The current building was erected in 1890. It had a store run by W. M Lucy on the first floor with apartments above. The building suffered damage in a fire in 1947.
The house at 661 Middle Turnpike in Mansfield was built sometime before 1816, when the property was first noted in town records. In 1853 the house was acquired by Anson Turner. From 1915 to 1940 the house and farm were owned by the John and Mary Tomaskovic, immigrants from Slovakia. In 1940 it was acquired by Augustus and Ruth Brundage and was owned by the family until 1988. A 1910 graduate of the Connecticut Agricultural College at Storrs (today’s UCONN), Augustus Brundage (born 1890) was appointed State Club Leader for the Extension Service of the Connecticut Agricultural College and the United States Department of Agriculture in 1917. The agricultural clubs became the 4-H and Brundage remained active in the organization after his retirement in 1948. Two of Augustus and Ruth’s sons, Granville and Roger, were killed in action during World War II. Brundage pool in Greer Field House at UCONN was named in their honor. For more information on the house, see Mansfield Four Corners (2003) by Rudy J. Favretti, pp. 89-92.
Hyde Kingsley of Willimatic became wealthy in the lumber and coal business in the 1860s and 1870s. He was partner in the firm of Loomer & Kingsley with Silas Loomer, who would build the Loomer Opera House in Willimantic (torn down in 1940). In 1883 Kingsley retired and the lumberyard was acquired by George K. Nason. That same year Kingsley built a Queen Anne house at 133 Prospect Street in Willimantic.
At 1 Trumbull Place in North Haven is the rectory (priest’s residence) of St. John’s Episcopal Church. The rectory was built in 1855 and the third floor and mansard roof were added in the 1880s. As related in North Haven Annals (1892), by Sheldon B. Thorpe:
On the removal of Mr. [Rev. Alonzo G.] Shears to New Haven, the Rev. Seth Davis came from Woodbury, Conn., and officiated part of the time. During his term the present rectory was built—-1855-—and he was its first occupant. He remained two years and was succeeded by the Rev. Joseph Scott. This clergyman was the first, in the long list of clergymen, to be “called” as rector. He gave his whole time to the people and became greatly beloved by them. His salary was $500 and the use of the rectory.
The cornerstone for St. John’s Episcopal Church, at the northeast corner of the Green (current address: 3 Trumbull Place) in North Haven, was laid in 1834. Episcopalians in the town first gathered to organize their own Episcopal church in 1759. The current Gothic Revival church was preceded by a wooden church, without a steeple, dedicated on the same site on St. John’s Day, December 27, 1761.
The house at 154 Damascus Road in Branford was built sometime in the last quarter of the eighteenth century. It was the home of Zaccheus Baldwin (1754-1831)
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