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

Colonial Theater (1926)

One of Hartford’s movie palaces was the Colonial Theater at 488 Farmington Avenue. Built in 1926, the former theater has an elaborate Federal-style facade designed by architect James A. Tuck. Like other theaters of the period, the Colonial began as a venue for vaudeville before making the transition to motion pictures. In 1961 the theater was updated for Cinerama. After the theater finally closed in 1979, the building was used for retail shops until 2000, when the building was demolished except for the facade. It then took several years before a new building, housing the Churrascaria Braza restaurant, was built on the site utilizing the old facade. Intended to spark additional neighborhood development, the restaurant eventually closed in 2012.

Chester Spencer House (1765)

The house at 79 Main Street in Somers was built in 1765 by Ebenezer Spencer (died 1787). His grandson, Chester Spencer, who was born in 1783, later lived on the family farm. Chester Spencer ran a dry goods store, called Spencer & Chaffee, in the village of Somersville with his brother-in-law, Elam Chaffee (1783-1855), who had married Elizabeth Spencer (1787-1865). Chester Spencer was also a partner in the construction of the first woolen mill in the town of Somers, purchasing two looms to produce satinet in 1835.

Cyrus C. Birdsey House (1850)

A farmer in Middlefield, Cyrus C. Birdsey was the son of John and Esther Coe Birdsey. In 1851 Cyrus married [Mary-]Jane Bacon and moved into the house at 30 Lyman Road, which had recently been built, probably in anticipation of Cyrus’ marriage. A Greek Revival house, it has a front gable end with an unusual diagonal clapboard pattern.

Telephone Building, Waterbury (1930)

The Telephone Building (now AT&T) at 348 Grand Street in Waterbury was built in 1930. Designed in the Georgian Revival style by Douglas Orr, the building’s cornice and entrance have Art-Deco foliated decoration.

Seventh Day Baptist Church, Waterford (1860)

The Seventh Day Baptists organized their church in Waterford in 1784. As related in the History of New London (1860) by Frances Manwaring Caulkins:

The society of Sabbatarians, or seventh-day Baptists, of the Great Neck, Waterford, date their commencement from the year 1674. They remained for the space of a century, members of the Westerly and Hopkinton church, with which they first united, but were constituted a distinct church, Nov. 2d, 1784.

Rev. William L. Burdick, in his history of “The Eastern Association” that appeared in Vol. II of Seventh Day Baptists in Europe and America (1910), quotes from an article by Prof. Wm. A. Rogers that appeared in the Seventh-day Baptist Quarterly:

The Church has had three places of worship. The first was built in 1710, and was situated on the brow of the hill on the east side of the Neck. and. seems to have been owned jointly with the First-day Baptist Church. The second meeting-house built by the Church was situated just north of the present one, and on the opposite side of the road. It was built in 1816; and it cost $859 more than the amount previously raised by subscription. The pews were sold Dec. 24. 1816, to meet this indebtedness. The present house of worship was built in 1860, upon the present location, and upon land donated by Dea. David Rogers. It cost $1,989.

The present address of the church is 206 Great Neck Road in Waterford.

Knight-Whaples-Grant Cottage (1871)

The summer cottage at 25 Pettipaug Avenue in the Borough of Fenwick in Old Saybrook was built circa 1871 on land sold that year to Mrs. Cyrus Knight. Her husband, Rev. Cyrus Frederick Wright was rector of the Church of the Incarnation (later renamed St. James’ Episcopal Church) in Hartford from 1870 to 1877. He resigned after an incident in which church funds were stolen by the parish treasurer. Rev. Knight then served as rector of St. James Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, from 1877 to 1889, but continued to summer in Fenwick. When he became Bishop of Milwaukee in 1889, he and his wife could no longer make the long trip to Fenwick and therefore rented the cottage for the summer. Rev. Knight died in 1891 and his wife, Elizabeth P. Pickering Knight, in 1912. The cottage was then owned for a time by Heywood Whaples. It was purchased in 1952 by Ellsworth Grant (1917-2013) and his wife, Marion Hepburn Grant (1918-1986), the sister of Katharine Hepburn. The cottage has later rear additions. You can read more about the cottage in Marion Hepburn Grant’s The Fenwick Story (Connecticut Historical Society, 1974), pages 128-131.

Matthews-Stow House (1753)

The house at 392 Jackson Hill Road in Middlefield was built sometime between January 1753, when John and Anna Wetmore Matthews purchased the land, and January 1755, when they sold it to Amos Miller. After Miller‘s death in 1777, the house had several owners. It was eventually purchased by Obed Stow (1767-1839), a shoemaker, in 1794. The house’s original central chimney has been replaced and the front portico was added later.