The Queen Anne house at 128 Milne Street in Bridgeport was built in 1896 for Michael Casey, a teamster at Frank Miller & Company, a coal company which was in business until 1907. The house’s architect was Harrison G. Lamson. (more…)
The house at 297 Silvermine Avenue, in the Silvermine section of Norwalk, was built around 1724. The land for the house was deeded to Jacob St. John by his father Ebenezer St. John in 1722. Jacob St. John gave the property to his only son Abraham in 1765. The lean-to, which gives the house a saltbox form, was probably built when the house was originally constructed. The house also has an original fieldstone chimney.
According to the Manual of the Southport Congregational Church (various editions):
Southport was for many years a part of the Fairfield parish. The people of Southport, having built a meeting-house in their own village in 1841, resolved at a meeting held February 18, 1843, to form a new church, and therefore called a council of the five neighboring churches for March 7, 1843. This council organized “The Southport Congregational Church,” with a membership of twenty-eight. The sermon in the afternoon was by the Rev. Lyman Hotchkiss Atwater, of Fairfield. In the evening the meeting-house was set apart to the worship of God, the Rev. Dr. Nathaniel Hewit, of Bridgeport, preaching the dedication sermon. The church was received into the Fairfield West Consociation June 6, 1843.
The current Southport Congregational Church, at 524 Pequot Avenue in Southport (Fairfield) was built in 1875. The church’s stained glass window dates to 1907.
The Pequot Library in Southport (in Fairfield) was founded in 1889 by Elbert B. Monroe and his wife, Virginia Marquand Monroe (1837-1926), who was the adopted daughter of Fairfield jeweler and businessman Frederick Marquand. The library building, located at 720 Pequot Avenue in Southport, was built in 1893 on the the grounds of the Marquand home, a Greek Revival house built in 1832, which was demolished to make way for the library. This was a site originally settled by Frederick Marquand‘s ancestor Henry Marquand in 1768. Frederick Marquand‘s brother was Henry G. Marquand, the noted financier, philanthropist and art collector. The library opened to the public in April of 1894. Constructed of sandstone blocks with a red tile roof, the building was designed by architect Robert H. Robertson.
The house at 186 Rowayton Avenue in Rowayton, Norwalk was built in 1842 by Nicholas Vincent, a New York ship builder, for his daughter, Catherine Raymond Vincent, who married John Thomes. The house is named for a later owner, Capt. William C. Sammis (1818-1891). A coastal shipping trader in oysters until the railroad drove him out of business, Capt. Sammis purchased the house in 1866 and became a farmer, sending his produce by train to market in New York City.
The house at 51 East Avenue in Norwalk was built circa 1789 for Hezekiah Jarvis (1746-1838). The son of Capt. Samuel Jarvis, Hezekiah Jarvis was the brother of the Episcopal Bishop Abraham Jarvis. According to The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. III (1893):
Hezekiah Jarvis lived to a patriarchal age and had the privilege of seeing his descendants to the fourth generation. He is described as a man of great mental gifts, possessing in particular a remarkable memory, fine discernment, a notable logical faculty, and great capacity for reasoning. He was a comprehensive and judicious reader and profound thinker. His disposition was pleasant and cheerful and even in extreme old age he was a delightful companion. Withal, he was a sincere and devout Christian, and the influence of his worthy and honorable life in the church is said to have been remarkable. He held office as warden in the church for a period of fifty-four years. He was well informed in ecclesiastical history and in church doctrines and usages, and brought up his family in accordance with his convictions. Hezekiah Jarvis was a man of inflexible integrity, who sustained throughout his life a reputation for an exalted appreciation of duty and a sense of his obligation to his Maker and his fellow-man.
A landmark of South Norwalk is the Donovan Building at 138 Washington Street, corner of Water Street. Built in 1889, it was the home of Jeremiah Donovan‘s Saloon. A civic leader and politician, Jeremiah Donovan served in the state house from 1903 to 1904 and the state senate from 1905 to 1909, and again from 1911 to 1913. He then served a term in the U.S. Congress from 1913 to 1915, and as mayor of Norwalk from 1917 to 1921. The building has since housed a bar/restaurant under various owners, except for the period of prohibition when it was an A. & P. Today the restaurant has a collection of vintage prizefighter pictures that belonged to “Battling Bat Kunz”, a regional champ who owned the restaurant for several decades. The current owner, Richie Ball restored the restaurant and bar in 1979 to its original Victorian style and renamed it after its original founder, Jeremiah Donovan. On the east side of the building is a mural depicting one of the last working schooners on Long Island Sound, the Alice S. Wentworth. It was painted in 1978 by Brechin Morgan, a local artist. After a billboard company painted over it in 1983, Morgan repainted the mural with some friends. It was touched up in 2007. (more…)
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