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

Thomas Eldredge House (1842)

Thomas Eldredge, and his brothers George and Elam, purchased land on Gravel Street in Mystic from their father in 1842. Thomas erected the house at 31 Gravel Street soon after. The three brothers were all shipmasters and mariners. Thomas was a captain for over 45 years and was known as “the Commodore of the Mallory line.” He sold the house when he retired. He moved to New York and maintained a summer home in Mystic on Prospect Hill. After a fire in 1879 the house’s original roof was replaced with a Mansard roof.

New Video: Old Wethersfield Walking Tour (with Captions)

My latest video is a walking tour of Old Wethersfield with historical information given in the captions.

Rev. Amos Bassett House (1806)

The house at 18 Church Street in Hebron was built in 1806 for Reverend Amos Bassett (1764-1828), who was pastor of the Hebron Congregational Church from 1794 to 1824. The Missionary Society of Connecticut was founded in a previous home of Rev. Bassett. The Bassett House is also known as the Kellogg-White House.

New Video: Brown Thomson’s Department Store

This video is about Brown, Thomson & Company, a department store that existed in Hartford Connecticut from 1866 to 1969. I talk about the store’s history with a focus on the buildings the business occupied. I also talk about another store, the Bee Hive, which existed from 1847 until 1894, when it was absorbed by Brown Thomson’s.

New Video on Hartford Department Stores: Wise, Smith & Co. and E. J. Korvette

This video is about Wise, Smith & Company, a department store in Hartford, Connecticut that existed from 1897 to 1954. I talk about the buildings that came before Wise-Smith and the various structures the company erected over the years. I also talk about the Hartford branch of E. J. Korvette, which occupied the Wise-Smith building from 1957 to 1971.

New Video: A Walk Around the Old State House, Hartford, CT

My latest video is another “walk”, this time around the Old State House. Please read the subtitles for interesting facts and historical information. If you enjoy this type of video please let me know and I can do more (and longer) ones!

Hank’s Mill (1882)

The village of Hanks Hill in Mansfield was the home of silk manufacturing company of Hanks Brothers. The original mill, built by Rodney Hanks and his nephew Horace Hanks in 1810 and believed to be the first water powered silk mill in the United States, was purchased by Henry Ford in the 1930s and moved to the Greenfield Village open air museum in Dearborn, Michigan. Another mill building was destroyed by fire in 1882 and replaced by the building at 247 Hanks Hill Road, now much altered to serve as a residence. It is just across the street from the Hanks Reservoir. Nearby, at 233 Hanks Hill Road, is a former boarding house for mill employees, built in the early nineteenth century (or as early as 1789).

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