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

Dr. Charles L. Smith House (1829)

Dr. Charles L. Smith built the house at 9 Long Hill Road in Middle Haddam (in East Hampton) in 1829, replacing a smaller house that stood on the site. In 1854 the house was purchased by Sophie Gardner, whose husband Edward C. Gardner was the first captain of the clipper ship Comet. Built in 1851 by William H. Webb in New York, the Comet was an extreme clipper, a very fast sailing ship that under Captain Gardner’s command gained a high reputation for speed. In February to May 1853, she raced the Flying Dutchman, another clipper built by Webb, from San Francisco to New York, beating her by 30 hours in a time of 83 days and 18 hours. She made a record time in December 1853 to March 1854, sailing from San Francisco to New York in 76 days 7 hours anchor to anchor (76 days pilot to pilot). She later sailed from Liverpool to Hong Kong, arriving there in 4 days 16 hours anchor to anchor (83 days 21 hours pilot to pilot) on September 9, 1854, another record time. Her best days run on that voyage was 350 miles. E. C. Gardner was captain of the Comet until August 1855. Gardner descendants owned the house in Middle Haddam until 1928, using it as a summer home called “Lawn View.” The Federal-style brick house was altered in the mid-nineteenth century, when an ell was constructed.

Hadlyme North School (1794)

Adjacent to the Hadlyme Congregational Church in East Haddam is the Hadlyme North School. A one-room schoolhouse, it was built in 1794 and was initially run by the Ecclesiastical Society, later by a School Society and then by the town starting in 1865. The school closed in 1929 and by 1967 the building was in danger of demolition. The North School Society was formed to preserve the building, which is maintained by the Society and the Congregational Church.

Elijah Judson House (1769)

The house at 57 Main Street North in Woodbury was built c. 1769 by Elijah Judson. The next year he sold the property to David Terrill. It had many owners over the years, including Jabez Bacon (c. 1795). The house has an extension that was probably used as a joiner’s or carpenter’s shop and later as a summer kitchen and woodshed.

Fitchville Baptist Church (1852)

The Fitchville Baptist Church, at 1 Bozrah Street Ext in Bozrah, was organized in 1887. I don’t know in what year the church building was erected. The church’s website gives the date of its foundation as 1852. There was once a Fitchville Congregational Church that erected its church building in that same year–perhaps the Baptist Church acquired the building previously used by the Congregational Church?

Knights of Columbus Building (1969)

The Knights of Columbus, a Roman Catholic fraternal service organization, have their headquarters in a 23-story modern building completed in 1969 at One Columbus Plaza in New Haven. Also known as the Knights of Columbus Tower, the building was designed by Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates. The KOC was founded in New Haven in 1882 and held its early meetings at St. Mary’s Church. In 1906 the first building specifically built for the organization was dedicated on Chapel Street. From 1953 to 1969 the Knights of Columbus Supreme Office was located in the former headquarters of the New Haven Railroad.

183-197 South Main Street, Suffield (1850)

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.

169 Bank Street, New London (1890)

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.