The house at 107 Cornwall Avenue in Cheshire was built in 1855. The house has been renovated a number of times over the years. The current doorway and front entry porch are thought to be the work of local architect Alice Washburn.
The first Catholic Mass in Manchester was was celebrated in 1848, by Rev. John Brady of Hartford, in the house of mill worker John Kennedy. As described in a history of “The Church in Manchester,” that appeared in The Sacred Heart Review (No. 14, April 3, 1897):
Next morning Mr. Kennedy was discharged by the foreman of the mill in which he was employed; but the mill-owner, Mr. Buell, hearing of this action, discharged the bigot and reinstated Mr. Kennedy. Fr. Brady came at intervals until 1850, when Rev. James Smyth began visiting Manchester at stated times, saying Mass in the house of James Duffy, on Union street.
As related in the history of the Diocese of Hartford by Rev. James H. O’Donnell in vol. 2 of the History of the Catholic Church in the New England States (1899):
When Rev. Peter Egan assumed charge of the Catholics of [St. Bernard parish,] Rockville in 1854, their co-religionists of Manchester passed under his jurisdiction. His pastorate was marked by the purchase of a church lot from Mr. E. Weaver, at a cost of £200. This site was one of the most eligible and commanding in the neighborhood. The Rev. Bernard Tully, who succeeded Father Egan in December, 1856, set about to carry out the designs of his predecessor. On Tuesday, October 19, 1858, the frame of the new church was raised in the presence of a large congregation, most of them Irish-Americans. The Cheney Brothers stopped their mills in order to render all the assistance possible. The dedication occurred on Decembers, 1858; 500 persons were present in the church on the occasion. The celebrant of the Mass was the Rev. Father O’Dwyer of Collinsville, and an appropriate discourse was delivered by Rev. Thomas Quinn of Meriden. Thenceforth to 1869, St. Bridget’s church was served from Rockville
St. Bridget parish was established in 1869 and Father James Campbell became the town’s first resident Catholic pastor. By the turn of the century the parish required a larger church. The cornerstone for a new church was blessed on January 25, 1896. and Bishop Michael A. Tierney blessed the completed St. Bridget Church, located at 80 Main Street, on November 26, 1903.
Douglas Orr (1892-1966) was a prolific Connecticut architect based in New Haven. He designed such buildings as the Southern New England Telephone Company building and the Quinnipiack Club in New Haven, the Willoughby Wallce Memorial Library in Stony Creek and the Robert A. Taft Memorial in Washington, D.C. Orr designed his own house in the International style. Built in 1941, it is located at 19 Prospect Hill Road in the Stony Creek section of Branford. (more…)
The Greek Revival house at 55 Hebron Road in Andover was built in 1840 by John F. Bingham (1808-1844). The Bingham family were descendants of Eleazar Bingham, who purchased land in Andover in 1750 that passed to his grandson, Cyrus Bingham. John F. Bingham was the nephew of Cyrus (he was the son of Cyrus’ brother Harvey Bingham). He received a farm where he built his house and also had a sawmill on Straddle Brook. He also served as Justice of the Peace.
The summer cottage at 10 Pettipaug Avenue in the Borough of Fenwick was built in 1886 by William H. Bulkeley and was originally located at the site of the cottage of the cottage at 9 Pettipaug Avenue. William H. Bulkeley, (1840-1902) the brother of Morgan G. Bulkeley, is described in the Illustrated Popular Biography of Connecticut (1891):
General Bulkeley was born in East Haddam, March 2, 1840. Seven years later, his father, the late Hon. Eliphalet A. Bulkeley, established his residence in Hartford, and remained here until his death a few years ago. The young man was educated in the district and high schools of Hartford, principal T. W. T. Curtis being one of his instructors. He left the high school before graduation, with an admirable record for scholarship and application, and entered an old and leading dry-goods establishment here as a clerk. In March, 1857, he went to Brooklyn, N. Y., and engaged in the same business with H. P. Morgan & Co. Afterwards he entered the dry-goods trade for himself, and conducted a successful business for six years on Fulton Street, Brooklyn. In 1868 he returned to Hartford and organized the Kellogg & Bulkeley Company, lithographers, of which he has since been the president. He was for several years vice-president of the Aetna Life Insurance Company, and is at present a member of its board of directors. He is also a director or otherwise officially connected with a number of the banking, insurance, and other corporations of Hartford. In 1878 he purchased the “Bee Hive,” a famous dry-goods establishment, which he has since managed with great success, it being the chief secular object of his attention.
[. . .] General Bulkeley was elected to the office of Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut on the ticket with Governor Bigelow, and served through 1881 and 1882 with credit. [. . .] General Bulkeley has a creditable war record, having been one of the first to respond to the call for troops after the attack on Fort Sumter. He was a member of the Brooklyn City Guard, G company, Thirteenth regiment, N. Y. N. G., and advanced to the front with his command, April 19, 1861. The organization was in service for four months. In 1862 he organized Company G, of the Fifty-sixth regiment, N. Y. N. G., and was elected captain. He was with his command through the Pennsylvania crisis of 1863, being in General “Baldy” Smith’s division. The regiment was ordered home during the New York draft riots, after which it was disbanded, its term of service having expired.
Before his death, William Bulkeley sold his cottage to his brother Morgan who sold it in 1905 to Lucius Barbour, who moved it to its current site to make way for his own larger cottage. You can read more about the cottage in Marion Hepburn Grant’s The Fenwick Story (Connecticut Historical Society, 1974), pages 156-159.
The house at 35 Rose Hill Road in Southport was not always a house. It was built in 1912 by the Southern New England Telephone Co. as its Southport Telephone Exchange. The business office was on the first floor and the telephone switchboard operations were on the second floor. The Telephone Exchange moved to reef road in 1947 and the 1,722-square-foot building was converted to residential use. For a time it was divided into two apartments until recent owners returned it to being a single-family home. The property also has a guest house that was once a four-bay garage used by SNET.
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