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

Community Baptist Church (1937)

The Community Baptist Church in Norwalk began as the South Norwalk Baptist Church in 1859. As described in Norwalk After Two Hundred & Fifty Years (1901):

The church was organized on May 5th, 1859, at the residence of John L. Burbank, on South Main street. Mr. and Mrs. Burbank were deeply interested in their church, and their home was bequeathed by them for a Baptist parsonage, nearly forty years after the church was organized within its walls. [. . .] The Rev. L. D. Gowen was chosen pastor at this meeting and the first services were held in Smith’s Hall, which is now Tilly’s carriage factory, on May 22, 1859. [. . .] A temporary place of worship called the Baptist Tabernacle was completed shortly before Mr. Fagan’s advent as pastor of the church [in 1861]. That building is now occupied by William Podmore, on North Main street, on the site of the present church edifice [built in 1885], on West avenue. [. . .]

The 1885 church building burned on February 2, 1936. Instead of rebuilding on the same West Avenue site, which had become a business area, parishioners decided to rebuild at 105 East Avenue and the church’s name was changed from the South Norwalk Baptist Church to the Community Baptist Church. The cornerstone was laid April 11, 1937 and the first service was offered October 17, 1937.

Niantic Cinemas (1950)

Niantic Cinemas at 279 Main Street in Niantic opened in 1950 as the single-screen Niantic Theatre. It was renamed after it was purchased by the Mitchell family in 1979 and was split into three screens (later 4 and, in 2003, 5 screens).

Alley House (1853)

The Greek Revival house at 572 Main Street in Plymouth is home to the Plymouth Historical Society. Their website states that it was built in the mid-nineteenth century. Another article gives the date as 1853. It was built by A.C. Shelton, of the Shelton and Tuttle Carriage Company, for his niece. The property was later known as the Burr Farm and then belonged to the Alley family.

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Daniel Morris House (1805)

Built around 1805, the Daniel Morris House in Branford originally stood on Main Street. In the late nineteenth century it was moved to its current address at 51 Bradley Street (which is why it has a high brick foundation).

South District School House, Farmington (1829)

At 220 Main Street in Farmington is a former one-room brick school house built in 1829 to serve the town’s South District. It was used as a school until 1904, when Farmington’s schoolhouses were consolidated into a Center School. In 1905 the former school was sold to Theodate Pope, who designed or remodeled five houses in town to become low-income housing. She converted the school house into a residence and it became the home of Reuben and Lucy Lewis and their eleven children. Reuben Lewis worked at the Lodge, a vacation home for girls working in the big city garment industry that was run by a group of Miss Porter’s School graduates. He was also a railroad porter. His father, Richard Lewis, had settled in Farmington before the Civil War after escaping from slavery on the Underground Railroad. In the 1930s the Lewis family moved out and the building has since been used as an antiques shop, a nursery school, a lawyer’s office and, most recently, Farmington Valley Dance & Music, LLC.

David Lyman II Homestead (1864)

In 1741 John Lyman (1717-1763) purchased the first parcel of the land in Middlefield that his descendents would develop and that is part of Lyman Orchards today. John’s great-grandson, David Lyman II (1820-1871) was a prosperous farmer who did much to develop the Town of Middlefield. He co-founded the Metropolitan Washing Machine Company and brought the Air Line railroad to Middlefield. In 1859 David Lyman II added a rear wing to a c. 1785 house, built on the property by his grandfather, David Lyman I. In 1862 he removed the 1785 house and the following year began construction of a new home on the site, completed in 1864. Designed by New Haven architect Rufus G. Russell, the new Lyman Homestead maintained a Georgian-type form but elaborated with the stylistic elements of the Italianate country villa and Gothic Revival cottage. The house, at 5 Lyman Road in Middlefield, has continued to be owned by the Lyman family and since 2000 has been available to rent for events.

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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.