Miah Perry House/Nehemiah Jennings Block (1787)

668-670 Harbor Road, Southport

At 668-670 Harbor Road in Southport is a 1787 building that was significantly altered in later years. It may give the impression of being a nineteenth-century mansard-roofed commercial block, but the upper floors began as the homestead of Miah Perry. It was possibly altered and expanded in 1834. By that time the building displayed the influence of the Dutch Colonial style with two low-pitched gambrel roofs intersecting at the street corner. In the 1870s, the house was raised by Nehemiah Jennings to sit above a commercial section. In one part of the new ground floor Jennings ran a market and post office, while the other part contained the John Wood dry goods store. Miss Mary Allis (1899-1987) purchased the building in 1947 and refurbished it the following year. She had started renting space for her antiques store on the southeast corner in 1945. Mary Allis was a major figure in the world of folk-art collecting.

This the 3,000th post at Historic Buildings of Connecticut! That’s 3,000 great buildings throughout the state!

Frank L. Stiles House (1870)

Stiles House

The house at 31 Broadway in North Haven was built in 1870 by builder Solomon Linsley for Frank L. Stiles (1854-1922), a prominent brick manufacturer. Stiles is described in the Legislative History and Souvenir of Connecticut (Vol. VII, 1909-1910):

Hon. Frank L. Stiles, of North Haven, Republican Senator from the Twelfth District, is the son of Isaac L. and Sophronia M. (Blakeslee) Stiles, and was born at North Haven July 12, 1854. He is a direct descendant of the Rev. Ezra Stiles, who was president of Yale College. He received his education at the famous Cheshire Academy and when eighteen years of age began to learn the brickmakers’ business in his father’s plant. Senator Stiles is now president and treasurer of the Stiles & Hart Brick Company, Taunton, Mass., president and treasurer of The Stiles & Reynolds Brick Company, Berlin, Conn., and also of the I. L. Stiles & Son Brick Company. North Haven, Conn., one of the largest establishments of its kind in the country. He is also deeply interested in agricultural pursuits, having half a dozen farms at North Haven and Taunton. On December 22, 1886. Senator Stiles married Mary Amelia Dickerman. a descendant of some of the old families of New England. He is a warden of St. John’s Episcopal Church, a thirty-second degree Mason, a member of the Union League of New Haven and of organizations in Meriden, Providence and other cities. He represented his town in the General Assembly of 1903. As chairman, this session, of the Committee on Agriculture, he promoted the enactment of legislation salutary to the entire state. Senator Stiles was also chairman of the Committee on Forfeited Rights and a member of the Committee on Incorporations. He is treasurer of the Connecticut Legislative Club of 1909. Senator Stiles has a wide circle of strong friends who greatly admire him for his sterling qualities and upright character.

The house is now called the Criscuolo Building and houses medical offices.

Wetmore West Block (1878)

Wetmore West Block

The commercial block at 410-416 Main Street in Winsted was erected in 1878 by John G. Wetmore, founder of the New England Pin Company. Wetmore had earlier built two attached buildings, the Winsted Opera House and the Wetmore East Block, the latter of which later became a post office. Neither of these two buildings survives today (the Opera House was gutted by a fire in 1901).

Pomeroy Tavern (1801)

Pomeroy Tavern

Another early tavern in Coventry was the Pomeroy Tavern, at 1804 Boston Turnpike. It was built in 1801 by Eleazer Pomeroy II (1776-1867) to take advantage of the opening of the Boston Turnpike in 1804. By 1810 the Tavern was also a stage house where stagecoaches would stop (stages had previously stopped at the Hunt House to the west). Pomeroy placed some advertisements in the Hartford Courant seeking to sell the property in 1810-1811. One of these (appearing March 27, April 17 and May 29, 1811) reads:

That valuable and well-known stand, now occupied as a tavern and stage-house, situated in Coventry, north society, thirty rods west of the meeting-house, and sixteen miles from Hartford, on the great middle turnpike and stage-road from Hartford to Boston, and near the intersection of the Providence turnpike-road through Windham, with a large convenient two-story house and large stables almost new, and other out-buildings; and from 30 to 40 acres of choice land under high cultivation, well proportioned for mowing, pasturing, &c; with a well and aqueduct conveying water into the kitchen and barn. Said stand will be sold, a bargain, and possession given when wished.

Samuel Tracy Loomis (1819-1896), a farmer, acquired the property in 1868 and ran a hotel there until he moved to Andover in 1891. He also served as postmaster and the local post office continued to be at the building until 1905. Early stenciling from c. 1815 was found under later wallpaper in the hall on the building’s second floor.

Brigham’s Tavern (1778)

Brigham's Tavern

The precise date for the construction of Brigham’s Tavern, at 12 Boston Turnpike in Coventry, is uncertain, but what is certain is that George Washington stopped here for breakfast on November 9, 1789. The full entry from Washington’s Diary for that day reads as follows:

Set out about 7 o’clock, and for the first 24 miles had hilly, rocky, and disagreeable roads; the remaining 10 was level and good, but in places sandy. Arrived at Hartford a little before four. We passed through Mansfield, (which is a very hilly country, and the township in which they make the greatest qty. of silk of any in the State,) and breakfasted at one Brigham’s, in Coventry. Stopped at Woodbridge’s in Et. Hartford [now in Manchester], where the level land is entered upon, and from whence, through East Hartford, the country is pleasant, and the land in places very good; in others sandy and weak. I find by conversing with the farmers along this road, that a medium crop of wheat to the acre is about 15 bushels—of corn, 20—of oats, the same —and in their strong and fresh lands they get as much wheat as they can rye to the acre—but in warm or sandy land the latter yields most. They go more, however, upon grazing than either; and consequently beef, butter and cheese, with pork, are the articles which they carry to market.

The tavern served travelers from 1778 into the nineteenth century. Uriah Brigham, son of Elnathan Brigham, had acquired the property in 1753 from Mathias Marsh. He occupied what is now the rear section of the building, which may date to c. 1717. His son Gershom Brigham was the first tavern-keeper, constructing the tavern sometime before it was first licenced in 1778. The west section was also built around that time or a little later. The sections of the building have been much altered over the years.

Former Methodist Church, Southbury (1832)

698 South Britain Rd., Southbury

The former Methodist Episcopal Church in South Britain, Southbury, has long been vacant and is in a dilapidated condition. Located at 698 South Britain Road, the simplicity of its design contrasts with the more elaborate Congregational Church directly across the street. The early history of the church is described in the History of Ancient Woodbury, Vol. I (1854) by William Cothren:

The first society of the Methodist Episcopal church, in the present town of Southbury, was organized at the south part of the town, on “George’s Hill,” about the year 1803, and consisted of about six members. They met at that time in a building formerly occupied as a school-house. But, in a few years, it was greatly enlarged, remodeled, and made more convenient and ample in its accommodations.

The society continued to increase in numbers until the church was filled to its utmost capacity. It soon became quite too small to accommodate the worshiping congregation.

In the year 1832, the society erected and dedicated a larger and more convenient house in South Britain. There they worshiped until the year 1851, when the edifice was enlarged and made a neat and elegant house of worship. The society now (1853) numbers about sixty-five communicants, and the church is well filled with a devout worshiping congregation.