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

Edwin O. Smith House (1831)

The house at 668 Middle Turnpike in Mansfield was built in 1831 by Arnold Wilson. Instead of a glass fanlight above the front door it has one made of wood. The house had many owners over the years, with Joseph Woodward adding an ell in 1836. The house was acquired by Edwin O. Smith in 1923, whose wife named it “Kendall Green” after the house in Washington D.C. owned by her ancestor, Amos Kenall, who was U.S. Postmaster General from 1835 to 1840. E. O. Smith served in the Connecticut General Assembly from 1932 to 1960 and was president of the Connecticut Agricultural College (now UCONN) from from April through September, 1908. Edwin O. Smith High School, next to the UCONN campus in Storrs, is named for him.

John Fitch School (1921)

The John Fitch School, at 156 Bloomfield Avenue in Windsor, was built in 1921. It was named in honor John Fitch, who was wounded in King Philip’s War and returned to Windsor where he died in 1676. He left his estate to the town to be used in establishing a school. His bequest continued to help finance higher education in Windsor for 200 years. The Fitch School was designed in the Beaux Arts style by William Henry McClean of Boston. An addition was constructed in 1929 and this addition was expanded to the rear in 1934. Originally a high school it became an elementary school in the 1950s and was converted to senior housing in the 1990s. (more…)

Annis Williams House (1895)

The Queen Anne house at 242 South Main Street in Cheshire was built circa 1895. At that time the land was owned by Annis Williams (1837-1924), an heir of stage driver Norvil Williams, who had an earlier home on the site. The house later became a funeral home.

St. Mary Star of the Sea Roman Catholic Church (1876)

St. Mary Star of the Sea Roman Catholic Church, New London

St. Mary Star of the Sea Roman Catholic Church in New London began in the 1840s, serving Irish workers from a storefront on Bank Street. Soon, St. John’s parish was formed and a chapel was erected on Jay Street. In 1855 a new church, St. Patrick’s, was consecrated on Truman Street. The parish acquired a large lot at the corner of Washington and Huntington Streets in 1866 and the following year work began on a new church, designed by Patrick Keely of New York. The parish was renamed St. Mary Star of the Sea in 1874 and the new church was completed and dedicated in May, 1876. The church tower was built in 1911.

Pythian Building (1874/1938)

The building at 360 Main Street in Middletown was built circa 1873-1876 to replace an earlier structure, a hotel called that Kilbourn House, that had burned down. The new building served as a hotel, known as the Farmer’s and Mechanic’s Hotel and later the Hotel Chaffee. In 1905 the building was sold to the Pythian Building Corporation. From then on, the first floor has contained retail businesses (Woolworth’s was here in the 1920s and 1930s). The second floor was converted for office use and the third floor became the meeting space of the Knights of Pythias, a fraternal organization. The Pythian Building‘s current facade, with marble and large windows on the first two floors and a Palladian window on the third story, dates to 1938.

Woodward House (1840)

The Woodward House, located at 588 Main Street in Somers, was built around 1840 by a sawnmill owner. In February there was concern over a developer’s plan to construct a CVS pharmacy at the intersection of routes 83 and 190, which would have required the razing of the Greek Revival house. The developer’s plans were eventually dropped.

Noah Stanley Tavern (1754)

As related in David N. Camp’s History of New Britain (1889):

For several years before New Britain was incorporated as a distinct society, the little community had been exercised by the discussions concerning the division of Kensington, and the questions relating to the petitions and other measures to secure preaching on East Street. The death of Rev. William Burnham, in 1750, gave a new impulse to the efforts which resulted in the incorporation of the society. . . . .

The first settlers of New Britain were farmers with such limited education as could be obtained at that day. Nearly all had some property, which by frugality and industry, was increased after they occupied their new homes. In the eastern part of the parish, commencing at the northern boundary, there was a succession of farms — some large, and others comprising but a few acres—extending southerly, first on the Stanley Road, and then on both Stanley and East streets, to the southern limits of the parish, or to Great Swamp. . . . .

In the north part of Stanley Quarter, John Clark, Daniel Hart, Thomas Stanley, and his sons, Thomas, Noah, Timothy, and Gad, Jonathan Griswold, and a few others, were living upon farms, which already gave evidence of cultivation and thrift. When the society was incorporated, the first three of these men and their farms, were excluded from New Britain, though located within the bounds of the new society. Thomas Stanley had a large landed estate in Farmington and New Britain, and also land in New Cambridge (Bristol). He had several slaves employed either as field hands or help in the house, some of whom were mentioned in his will. He died before the first church in New Britain was organized, but three of his sons were members of this church, and they and some of their descendants became prominent in the affairs of the church and society. His eldest son, Thomas, had his home on the east side of the highway in Stanley Quarter; Noah, the second son, who was about thirty years old when the society was formed, lived on the west side of the road, where his son, and then his grandson, Noah W. Stanley, afterward lived. He kept a tavern at the place. A younger brother, Timothy Stanley, lived on the opposite side of the street, and had a tannery near his house.

Built circa 1754, the Noah Stanley Tavern is located at 1928 Stanley Street in New Britain. For much of the twentieth century, the house was owned by Hubert S. Blake, a New Britain native who died in 1975 at the age of 99. (more…)