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

Third Baptist Church, Stonington (1833)

The village of North Stonington in the Town of North Stonington was developed in the nineteenth century as a mill village and was called Milltown. Inspired by the evangelism Jabez S. Swan, first pastor of the Huntington Street Baptist Church in New London, a group of Milltown residents gathered at the home of Samuel Chapman to form a Baptist church on December 25, 1828. It was the Third Baptist Church in North Stonington, following the First Baptist Church (formed in 1743) and the Second Baptist Church (formed in 1765). The Third Baptist Church initially held its services in private homes and in the District #2 Schoolhouse. Its membership grew and a church, called the Milltown Baptist Meeting House, was built in 1833 at what is now 29 Main Street on land donated by Mrs. Stephen Avery, widow of Stephen Avery. North Stonington’s Fourth Baptist Church, also known as the Laurel Glen Chapel, was dismantled in 1940 and attached to the rear of the Third Baptist Church.

Pease House (1828)

The long side ell of the Pease House, located at 567 Main Street in Somers, may have been built in the eighteenth century (1715), but the main block was constructed in 1828 and the entire facade of the house reflects the remodeling of that year in the Federal style. The house became the Maples Inn and Tea Room in the early twentieth century and remained in business until 1953. It is a private home today, but the current owners open their decorated house to tours during the holiday season.

John Osborne House (1673)

The oldest house in Fairfield is the John Osbourne House at 909 King’s Highway, West. The oldest section consists of the original center-chimney block, which probably began as one-room and was then expanded. A lean-to added several decades after the house was built. The traditional date of construction is 1673, but the later date of 1734 is more likely. The house is traditionally associated with John Osborne, who married in 1673. His father Richard fought in the Pequot War and received a grant of land for his services. The last battle of the war was fought in 1637 in Pequot Swamp, which is located adjacent to the house. The colonial-era section of the house is flanked at both ends by two twentieth-century wings.

Timothy Stevens, Jr. House (1743)

Happy Thanksgiving! The house at 1179 Main Street in Glastonbury is associated with Timothy Stevens, Jr. (1705-1746), who may have built it in 1743 on land that he had acquired from his father, Rev. Timothy Stevens. The house has also been given the later date of 1763. In the twentieth century the house was part of Red Hill Farm.

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A.F. & IP. Wood Building (1900)

At 519-529 Campbell Avenue in West Haven is a three-story Tudor Revival commercial building erected in 1900. It was built by the brothers (or father and son?), Alonzo Felton Wood and James P. Wood, who operated a drug store on the first floor.

Poli Palace, Majestic Theater and Savoy Hotel (1922)

Poli Palace, Majestic Theater and Savoy Hotel, Bridgeport

In downtown Bridgeport is a vacant and dilapidated 13-acre building complex, which occupies a city block. Ghost hunters are very interested in the building, which was possibly built on a Native American burial ground. The Beaux Arts structure, built in 1922, was once home to the Poli Palace, the Majestic Theater and the Savoy Hotel. The Poli Palace was built by theater impresario Sylvester Z. Poli as a vaudeville house. Mae West appeared at the theater in 1927. It was the largest theater in Connecticut and continued in use (later renamed Loew’s Palace Theater) until 1975. The Majestic Theater was smaller than the Poli Palace. It was in operation as a movie theater until 1971. Both theaters were designed by Thomas W. Lamb. Between the two theaters was the 109-room Savoy Hotel. In 1935 the Prohibition-era gangster and bootlegger Dutch Schultz moved to the Stratfield Hotel across the street for several months after two trials for tax evasion in New York State. It is wondered if he was involved in the murder of two people in the second floor lobby of the Savoy during this period. A month after leaving Bridgeport Dutch Shultz was gunned down in Newark, New Jersey. The city is seeking to redevelop the property.

Scranton Memorial Library (1901)

A subscription library in East Guilford (now Madison), called the “Farmers’ Library,” had existed from 1792 until the 1860s. A new Madison Library Association was formed in 1878. The library’s collection was housed in various places in town until it was lost in a fire in 1895. Eighteen books survived (those checked out at the time of the fire) and the Library Association soon resumed operations. A permanent home for the library was built at 801 Boston Post Road on the corner of Wall Street in Madison in 1900 by Miss Mary Eliza Scranton, who offered the fully furnished building to the town. The library was designed by Henry Bacon, later the architect of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. In 1901, the Library Association was dissolved and the E.C. Scranton Memorial Library was incorporated.