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

Arthur G. Evans House (1917)

The house at 30 Warren Way in Watertown was built in 1917 for Arthur G. Evans, purchasing agent for Chase Brass and Copper Company of Waterbury. According to the nomination for the Watertown Center Historic District, the house’s design, which represents a phase of the Colonial Revival style that sought to accurately duplicate the form, massing and detail of Colonial houses, has been attributed to Cass Gilbert. The plans may also have been drawn by another member of his firm or been outlined by Gilbert and completed by an apprentice. (The nomination‘s listing of structures in the Historic District gives a date of 1917 for the house, while the text for the District’s Architectural Significance gives a date of 1929).

William Vars House (1892)

The Italianate house at 21 Bridge Street on Saybrook Point in Old Saybrook was built in 1892 as a home for the prominent engineer William Vars. In the twentieth century it was the home of Mary Clark. By the late 1990s the house had become dilapidated, but it has recently been refurbished to become an eight-room guesthouse. Called “Three Stories,” it is owned by of Saybrook Point Inn & Spa, whose main building is located just across the street. The guesthouse, which remains true to the architecture and interior design of the period, opened in May, 2014.

Norwalk Town House (1835)

Located in Mill Hill Historic Park in Norwalk is the former Town House (or Town Hall), a Federal-style brick structure erected in 1835. Norwalk’s first Town House was erected by 1736 at the site of the old Trolley Barn at Wall and Knight Streets. A newer Town House was later built at Mill Hill, but it was destoyed when the British burned Norwalk on July 11, 1779 during the Revolutionary War. It took fifteen years before a new structure was erected in 1794. As described by John Warner Barber in his Connecticut Historical Collections (1836):

The old town house was pulled down in July, 1835. It had been long in a ruinous state, and much disfigured the appearance of the place. Some persons in the town who took upon themselves the responsibility of regulating things of this nature about the town, being impatient of the “law’s delay,” took advantage of the darkness of night, pulled down the obnoxious building, and piled up the rubbish by the side of the road.

The current building was built by by Captain Lewis Raymond, who used brick brought to Norwalk as ship’s ballast. The building was used as the seat of government until the Town of Norwalk and the City of South Norwalk were consolidated in 1913. Starting in 1924, the Norwalk Daughters of the American Revolution leased the building from the city, eventually adding a rear kitchen wing. The building was restored in 1965 for meeting and educational purposes. Still owned by the city, it is maintained, along with the rest of Mill Hill Historic Park, by the Norwalk Historical Society and the Norwalk-Village Green Chapter of the DAR.

Moose Home (1932)

The Loyal Order of Moose is a fraternal and service organization. The Moose Lodge in Norwalk built Moose Hall at 68 South Main Street in 1932. The Moose Lodge had already occupied an earlier building on the same site. The building was purchased by Corinthian Lodge No. 16, F&AM, in the summer of 1995. The Corinthian Lodge sold the building to the City of Norwalk in 2014. Plans are for Moose Hall and its neighbor, the former Independent Order of Odd Fellows Building at 70 South Main Street, to be resold for mixed-use development. This past August, the Norwalk Redevelopment Agency requested proposals to make Environmental Site Assessment reports on the two buildings to evaluate their condition and estimate costs of rehabilitation.

Grace L. Raymond House (1925)

Horace H. Raymond (1897-1954) married Grace Lillian Lattin in 1924. Soon thereafter (about 1825) she built a Bungalow style house at 198 Hundson Street in Berlin. Horace Raymond worked as an engineer for The Stanley Works and additions made to the rear of the house contained his own shop. In the early 1930s he took on a personal project: developing a pneumatic operator for an automatic door triggered by an optic device. He patented his invention in 1934. The first commercial installation of his “magic eye doors” was at Wilcox Pier Restaurant, at Savin Rock in West Haven. Another set of his automatic doors can still be found at the main entrance of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In the late 1930s he established his own company, Raymond Engineering, which was based in Middletown.

First Congregational Church of Washington (1801)

First Congregational Church of Washington, CT

The third meeting house of the First Congregational Church of Washington is located at 6 Kirby Road on Washington Green. It was built in 1801 and has a later (1910) Colonial Revival front porch. The original spire and belfry were replaced in 1845. The Ecclesiastical Society in Washington was formed in 1741. Washington was called Judea until the town was incorporated in 1779. The first meeting house was built in 1742 a little to the north of the present building. A second meeting house replaced it in 1754. It was destroyed by fire in 1800 and the current building was then erected.

Adams and Stone’s Blocks (1894)

Adams and Stone's Blocks, Main Street, Winsted

The two adjacent commercial buildings at 418-420 and 424-426 Main Street in Winsted were both built around 1894. The building on the right in the image above (No. 418, Winsted News Co.) was built by Horace O. Adams, who had his construction firm offices on an upper floor and ran a shoe store on the first floor. The building on the left (No. 424, Winsted Pawn & Jewlery) was built by Charles and Lester Stone, house painters, who had their offices in the building. Both buildings also contained residences as well as businesses.