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

Francis D. Perry House (1832)

According to his obituary in The Bankers’ Magazine, and Statistical Register, Vol. 38, No. 11 (May, 1884):

Francis D. Perry President of the Southport (Conn.) National Bank, died after a short illness in that town on April 16th, in his seventy-fifth year. He had been for over thirty years an officer of this bank, and of its predecessor, the Southport Bank. He was also for some years Secretary and Treasurer of the Southport Savings Bank, and to these institutions devoted his energies with fidelity, perseverance, and marked ability. Mr. Perry was a man who won, by his high personal character, universal respect and regard. Thoroughly conscientious, decided in his opinions, but courteous, considerate and liberal, he exemplified the best type of the faithful official and the Christian gentleman. The boards of directors of the two banks, at a special union meeting, passed unanimously a series of resolutions expressive of their high regard and appreciation of the deceased.

Perry’s Greek Revival house, at 678 Pequot Avenue in Southport, is similar in design, with a five columned front portico, to his brother Henry Perry’s house at 45 Westway Road in Southport. They may have been designed or built by the same person. Perry was a member of Trinity Parish and after his widow died in 1893 the house was left to the parish as a rectory.

First Congregational Church, Madison (1838)

The first meetinghouse in Madison was erected in 1705, on the southeast section of the town green. It had neither a bell nor a steeple and galleries were only added in 1715. A new meetinghouse was dedicated in May 1743, to which a steeple was added in 1799. The present First Congregational Church was built in the Federal style on the north part of the green in 1837-1838. As described in A Modern History of New Haven and Eastern New Haven County, Volume 1 (1918), by Everett G. Hill:

When the people built for the third time in 1838, they had the common struggle to break away from the green. There was a strong party that favored building on Deacon Hart’s lot north of the green, but so resolute was the minority that forty-seven members actually withdrew from the church in 1841, because of the change. The commanding site north of the green was chosen, and it and the building placed thereon have ever since been the pride of the people of Madison, the delight of all who visit the town. It is a building of notable architecture, acknowledged by all good judges to be one of the finest country churches of its type in New England. A handsome modern chapel was added to its equipment, on a plot just east of the green, in 1881.

William Sturges House (1889)

The house at 60 Church Lane in Westport was built c. 1889-1890. It was the home of William Sturges and in 1917 was listed as the home of Frank Sturges, a mill employee. It was later home to the Fable family until it was sold to the Westport Chamber of Commerce in 1999. The building was restored and won a Preservation Award in 2004 from the Westport Historical Society.

Glastonbury Knitting Company (1861)

The Glastonbury Knitting Company (begun as the Glastenbury Knitting Company in 1855) later expanded to Manchester with a mill at Manchester Green. A mill was first built on the site in 1851 and rebuilt after a fire in 1861. The mill produced men’s long woolen underwear. An interesting item that appeared in the September 2, 1911 issue of Fibre and Fabric: The American Textile Trade Review (Vol. 54, No. 1382) stated that:

The Glastonbury Knitting Co. shut down their mill at the Green last Saturday for a week. So many of the employees desired a vacation that the managers decided to shut down. The company is fairly busy, and at the present time gives employment to about 70 hands.

The mill was expanded over the years (did it reach its current form in 1901?), but closed in the 1920s (although the company’s mill in Glastonbury was in operation until 1936). Since that time the old mill building (501 Middle Turnpike East) has been used as an antique store, drug store, bar, a printer’s shop, a shoe store, a warehouse, a bookshop and two different furniture stores. (more…)

Glastenbury Knitting Company (1860)

The Glastenbury Knitting Company (which, like the town where it was founded, later changed the spelling of its name to “Glastonbury“) was founded in 1855 by Addison L. Clark. The company produced men’s wool underwear (long johns, called “union suits” during the Civil War), reaching its peak during World War I when it produced 400,000 pairs for the U.S. army. Having acquired the Eagle Manufacturing Company woolen mills in Glastonbury 1855, the company built its first mill (c. 1860), just upstream on Salmon Brook, at the outlet to a small mill pond called Addison Pond. A fire in 1892 destroyed part of the mill, but Clark soon rebuilt and in 1897, a year after his death, the surrounding mill village of Eagleville was renamed Addison in his honor. The mill itself was expanded over the years, until about 1910. The company went out of business in 1936, during the Great Depression. The old mill was later used as a warehouse, but in 2005 it was acquired by developers who have converted it into upscale apartments under the name Addison Mill Apartments. The developers recreated a tower, destroyed by fire in the late 1930s, that had stood at the building’s western end. The new tower serves as a stairwell. (more…)

Manwaring Building (1913)

Between about 1868 and his death in 1900, Dr. Robert A. Manwaring had practiced medicine in a house in New London where the building at 225-237 State Street now stands. The building was constructed in 1913 as the result of a bequest by the doctor’s son, Wolcott B. Manwaring (to support a memorial children’s hospital). Designed by Dudley St. Clair Donnelly, the Manwaring Building has housed many businesses over the years. (more…)

Jared Cone House (1800)

Jared Cone Sr. (1733-1807) of Bolton married Christiana Loomis on September 19, 1754. He purchased the Loomis farm in Bolton by 1768. Jared Cone and his son, Jared Cone, Jr., both served in the Revolutionary War. The father marched with the militia from Bolton to the Lexington Alarm in 1775 and the son was at the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781. Jared Cone, Jr. married Elisabeth Wells of Wethersfield in 1784. He acquired his father’s farm in 1790 and ten years later built a Federal-style house at what is now 25 Hebron Road. The house‘s rear ell appears to be much earlier, dating perhaps to c. 1755. Cone could only afford to live in the grand house for four years, eventually selling it and moving away (he died in New Hampshire). For about eight years the house was a bed and breakfast until it closed in 2003.