Merry Chriatmas! According to a 1980 survey of historic buildings in Old Saybrook, St. John’s Roman Catholic Church, at 161 Main Street was built in the early twentieth century. The parish was founded in 1884. It began as mission of St. Jospeph’s Church in Chester. St. John’s became a separate parish in 1914, so I suspect the church was built around that date.
According to Homes of Old Woodbury (1959), p. 240, the house at 148 Good Hill Road was built in the early nineteenth century by Hunting Beardslee (d. 1825) [other sources give the name as Huntington Beardsley (d. 1823)] and passed to his son, Charles T. Beardslee. The house has also been dated to 1835. In the 1940s the house was owned by the Surrealist artist, David Hare (1917-1992).
The building at 165-167 Bank Street in New London was built in 1798 as a residence for a Dr. Wolcott. In the 1840s it became the home and office of Dr. Nathaniel Shaw Perkins. Nineteenth-century alterations to the house added Italianate features.
The Greek Revival house at 43 Liberty Street in Chester was built c. 1820-1830 for Charles Daniels (1799-1838). Ithiel Town has traditionally been attributed as the architect, but this has not been historically verified. It is however architecturally similar to other works by Town. The house was originally erected near Daniels’ gimlet factory, built about 1825 on Deep Hollow Brook. After his death the house passed to his widow (his second wife, Abby L. Gilbert, who died in 1905) and her second husband, Clark N. Smith, who died in 1911. The building was acquired by a neighboring factory, M. S. Brooks & Sons, which eventually started using it as a warehouse. New owners acquired the house in 1977 and in June 1978 it was moved 300 feet to the west, away from the factory. The house was then carefully restored as a residence. (more…)
The Chester Savings Bank was formed in 1871. The bank constructed its building at 6 Main Street in Chester in 1902. It was the only bank in town until the Chester Trust Company was established as a commercial bank in 1914. For many years the two banks shared the same building and the same staff (they eventually merged in 1977). The Savings Bank later moved out and the building has since been used for commercial purposes, most recently as a vegan restaurant that opened in 2012 (and restored a clock to the face of the building) and closed in 2014. (more…)
St. George Greek Orthodox Church was established in 1915 to serve New Britain and surrounding communities. It is the second oldest Greek Orthodox church in Connecticut. Services were held in a building on Beatty Street until the church at 301 West Main Street in New Britain was built in 1951. (Source: Peter Baldwin, “New Britain Church Marks 75th Year,” Hartford Courant, September 29, 1990).
The house (which combines Gothic Revival and Italianate features) at 100 Main Street in South Glastonbury was built around 1878 by George S. Andrews (1819-1891). In 1866, he opened a feldspar quarry in South Glastonbury and started what is said to have been the first feldspar mill in Connecticut. What is now called “Old Maids Lane” was built by Andrews to transport the feldspar to the family’s dock on the Connecticut River.
You must be logged in to post a comment.