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.
William Barton founded East Hampton’s famous bell manufacturing industry in 1808. Bell making was passed to his son Hiram and then to his grandson William E. Barton (c. 1830-1895), who manufactured sleigh bells. William E. Barton initially made bells at his father’s foundry, but after a fire in 1874 he moved to a nearby foundry built by the Union Bell Company. His company was sold and reorganized in 1881 as the Barton Bell Company. He married Harriet Watrous in 1853 and their son Abner Watrous Barton was part owner of the Barton Bell Company. William E. Barton patented several innovative designs for sleigh bells and bell straps. His originality is also reflected in the distinctive design of his house, built in 1855 and located at 30 Skinner Street in East Hampton. The house was acquired by N.N. Hill in 1892 and was owned by the N.N. Hill Brass Company until 1950.
The house at 968 Main Street North was constructed sometime before 1771 (perhaps as early as 1716?), when the property was acquired by Elijah Booth from Edward Hinman. Booth was a cabinetmaker and in 1806 his dwelling house, joiners shop and barn were acquired by Eli Hall. The house remained in the Hall family until it was sold by Hall’s daughter, Lydia Ann Hall, who married Sherman B. Warner, sold it in 1892. From 1915 to 1918 the house was one of five, including the Peter Parley House, that were were owned as a seasonal estate by Robert and Antonia Treupel of Mamaroneck, NY. They sold their houses to the Lutheran Inner-Mission Society of Connecticut, which sold the Booth House to Delia Hunihan in 1933. She lived there with her husband John until 1959. Restoration of the house was begun by its next owner, Mark Messier, and was continued by Carl and Elizabeth Kamphausen, who bought it in 1962.
A number of mariners named Captain Charles Williams lived in Old Saybrook over the years. One of them (perhaps the Capt. Charles Williams who died on his birthday at the age of 75 on June 4, 1883?) built the Greek Revival House at 48 Cromwell Place on Saybrook Point in Old Saybrook in 1842.
The Edgar Dickinson House at 24 North Cove Road in Old Saybrook was built c. 1700. It was renovated in 1996.
Edward Everett Honiss (1866-1927) operated a grocery and general merchandise store in East Berlin. He was one of a series of men who had run the store, as described by Catharine Melinda North in her History of Berlin (1916):
From the time as far back as the memory of the oldest living person goes, a prosperous store has been conducted at the stand south of the Freedom Hart place, which for many years has borne the sign of Henry N. Galpin.
Names obtained of those who have been at the head of the business here are as follows: Orrin Beckley, about 1810; Samuel Porter (died 1838, aged eighty-eight); Horace Steele & Dr. David Carpenter; Plumb & Deming, 1835; Benjamin Wilcox; S. C. Wilcox; Galpin & Loveland; Henry N. Galpin; Strickland Bros., and lastly E. E. Honiss. This store formerly carried a line of everything that the community might need, including drugs. Physicians’ prescriptions were compounded here until, by mutual agreement, H. N. Galpin surrendered his drug department to Alfred North, who, in exchange, gave up the sale of his drygoods to Mr. Galpin.
The Honiss family also had interests in a flour and grist mill. E.E. Honiss’ substantial Queen Anne house, built around 1893, is located at 255 Berlin Street in East Berlin.
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