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

Benjamin Howd II House (1740)

Benjamin Howd II, son of the carpenter Benjamin Howd, built the saltbox house at 58 Old Post Road in Northford (in North Branford) c. 1740.

The Langdon Harrison House, located at 1686 Middletown Avenue in the Northford section of North Branford, was built in 1838. The house features the pedimented facade of the Greek Revival style, but with an atypically wide four-bay front facade. Langdon Harrison was First Selectman in North Branford in 1848-1849. The Connecticut Business Directory of 1856 lists “Langdon, Harrison & Co.” in Northford. He died in 1859.

Little Red Schoolhouse, North Branford (1805)

The oldest one-room schoolhouse still standing in New Haven County is the Little Red Schoolhouse in Northford in North Branford. Built in 1805, it was used as a school until 1890. The League of Women Voters moved the Little Red Schoolhouse from its original location on Forest Road to its current address at 13 Old Post Road in 1933 to serve as to the Northford Public Library. The building was recently restored to become a museum maintained by the Totoket Historical Society.

High Street School, Wethersfield (1862)

The building at 311 Main Street in Wethersfield was built in 1862 as the High Street School. A brick building, it replaced an earlier wooden school building, built in 1770, which stood just to the south-east. It was in this earlier building that Wethersfield’s first library, called the Union Society Library (established in 1783) was located until 1798. The former brick schoolhouse was converted into a residence in 1928 and wooden side dormers were added. (more…)

St. Joseph School, Meriden (1927)

Update: The St. Joseph School building was torn down in 2024. The school had closed in 2017.

St. Joseph Catholic Church in Meriden was completed in 1908 and a parish school on West Main Street was dedicated on September 5, 1915. The current building was erected in 1927.

Hezekiah Palmer House (1830)

At 340-408 Leete’s Island Road in Branford is an early Greek Revival house thought to have been built before 1830 (the date carved on one of the house‘s beams) by James Palmer, although it has traditionally been associated with his son, Hezekiah Palmer. James Palmer was lost in a shipwreck in 1831. There is also a historic barn on the property.

St. Joseph Church, Meriden (1908)

In 1895 St. Rose Catholic parish in Meriden purchased a chapel on West Main Street from the Trinity Methodist Church to serve its expanding membership in the city’s west side. Originally dedicated to the Sacred Heart, the chapel soon became St. Joseph’s Church when a new parish was created in 1900. The site for a new church, at the corner of West Main Street and Goodwill Avenue, was purchased the following year and the cornerstone was laid on October 12, 1902. A basement chapel opened in 1903 and the completed St. Joseph Church was dedicated in early 1908.