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

Wheeler’s Island House (2001)

Wheeler’s Island is one of the Thimble Islands, which are located in and around the harbor of Stony Creek in the southeast corner of Branford. Vacation homes, displaying a variety of architectural styles, are located throughout the archipelago. Not far off shore is Wheelers Island, first known as Page’s Island. In 1865 Henry B. Frisbie purchased the island from Alonson Hall and built a Victorian cottage with an Italianate cupola. Frank Wheeler of Meriden, an avid yachtsman, acquired the island in 1885 and the Wheeler family owned it until 1998. It was acquired by Christine Svenningsen, a wealthy widow. The old house on Wheeler’s Island was torn down in 1999, but soon replaced with a recreation. Svenningsen began purchasing more of the Thimble Islands from 2003 to 2007, spending $33 million and eventually owning ten. In 2010 she married John G. Chiarella, Jr., a landscaping entrepreneur whose company managed the island properties. The couple divorced three years later and a $250 million legal battle followed. Wheeler’s Island is also known as Ghost Island because it is reputed to be haunted.

St. Francis of Assisi Church, South Windsor (1942)

St. Francis of Assisi Parish in South Windsor was established on September 17, 1941. Early parish Masses were held at the town hall auditorium on Main Street before a new church was built on 2.2 acres on Ellington Road that werepurchased from Elizabeth A. Nevers. The new church was dedicated on November 29, 1942. The church was renovated in 2006.

Temple B’Nai Israel (1929)

The former Temple B’Nai Israel at 265 West Main Street in New Britain was built in 1927-1929 as a Masonic Temple. It was designed by architect Walter P. Crabtree. The Masons sold the building to the Jewish congregation Aheyu B’Nai Israel (Brethren Sons of Israel) in 1940. Aheyu B’Nai Israel was organized in 1889 as an Orthodox congregation, but reorganized as Conservative in 1924. Members who held to Orthodox views split off and built Tephereth Israel Synagogue. Temple B’Nai Israel closed in the summer of 2007. Its Torah scrolls were transferred to the Hillel organizations at Trinity College, the University of Hartford, and the University of Connecticut

Jonathan and Joel Williams House (1800)

The Williams family, which arrived in Hartford with Thomas Hooker, recieved land grants in the north part of what is now East Hartford. Several generations later, c. 1800, brothers Jonathan (also known as John) and Joel Williams replaced an earlier Williams house with the one that is still standing at 270 Long Hill Street in East Hartford.

Jonathan Stiles House (1820)

The house at 67 Mansion House Road in Southbury was built c. 1820 for Jonathan Stiles by his parents, Abel and Lucinda Stiles. They also built a house (1101 Main Street) for their other son Rufus. Jonathan left his house to his son Ransom, who left it to his daughter Anna and son Walter in 1912. Their sister, Bertha Stiles, married Charles W. Burpee (1859-1945), a newspaper editor and author who also served in the Connecticut National Guard. The Burpees resided at 19 Forest Street in Hartford, but in 1916 they acquired the Southbury house for use as a summer residence. Burpee was managing editor of the Hartford Courant from 1900 to 1904 and then head of the educational and editorial departments of the Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Company of Hartford from 1904 to 1935, serving the last five of those years as editor of the Hartford Times. He was the author of several books, including The Military History of Waterbury (1891); the History of Hartford County (1928); A Century in Hartford, Being the History of the Hartford County Mutual Fire Insurance Company (1931); and The Story of Connecticut (1939). The house passed to Bertha and Charles‘s son Stiles Burpee.

Thomas C. Wordin House (1892)

Now home to Teamsters Local #191, the house at 1139 Fairfield Avenue in Bridgeport was built in 1892 for Thomas Cooke Wordin. The house, originally known as “The Pines,” was designed by the Bridgeport-based architect Joseph W. Northrop, who also designed such buildings as the Taylor Memorial Library in Milford (1895) and the Colin M. Ingersoll House in New Haven (1896). The Wordin House was illustrated in The American Architect and Building News, Vol. XLI, no. 921 (August 19, 1893)

Hough Tavern (1780)

Hough’s Tavern, once a relay station and tavern on the stagecoach line from New York to Boston, is located at 194 West Main Street in Chester. The building is dated c. 1780 or 1790.