First Baptist Church of Waterford (1848)

First Baptist Church of Waterford

The first Baptist church in Connecticut was established in Groton in 1705. Families west of the Thames River, who did not want to have to travel across the river every Sunday, established their own Baptist church, only the second in Connecticut, in 1710 in what would later be the Town of Waterford. Meeting in private homes and, for a time, sharing a meeting house with the Waterford Seventh Day Baptists, they eventually built a church on Mullen Hill Road around 1796. It was here that the first meeting of the Town of Waterford was held in 1801. The town continued to meet at the church for a century until a town hall was built. The current Greek Revival meeting house of the First Baptist Church of Waterford was constructed in 1848 at 105 Rope Ferry Road. Construction of the church stimulated the development of its immediate vicinity as a residential community, an area known as Jordan Village.

Mapleton Hall (1883)

Mapleton Hall, Suffield

Mapleton Hall, at 1305 Mapleton Avenue in Suffield, was constructed in 1883. First known as Central Hall and located on Crooked Lane, which was soon changed to Mapleton Avenue, the building was used as a meeting hall for town government and farmers’ associations. As described in Celebration of the Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Settlement of Suffield, Connecticut, October 12, 13 and 14, 1920:

A strong community spirit has characterized the people residing in that part of the town long known as Crooked Lane and later as Mapleton. Early in the seventies they began to hold Lyceum and Farmers’ meetings in the old brick school house at the foot of the hill. It became too small for the interesting meetings and in the winter of 1879-80 a public hall was suggested. This sentiment quickly grew and at a meeting early in 1880 a committee consisting of Cecil H. Fuller, Arthur Sikes and Edward Austin was appointed to draw up articles of organization and agreement. They were presented at a meeting at the school house April 16, 1880, and an association organized. The articles of agreement were accepted and the following officers elected: president, Edward Austin; secretary, John L. Wilson; auditor, Dwight S. Fuller; trustees, Cecil H. Fuller, Henry D. Tinker and D. D. Bement. In the next two years enough money was raised so that the construction of Mapleton Hall was begun in the spring of 1882. It was ready for use in January of the next year and was dedicated January 16 with exercises that included an “old home week.” At first it was called Central Hall, but the name was later changed to Mapleton Hall. In 1896 a large addition was built to meet the requirements. All debts are paid and the association has money in the treasury.

The old Lyceum and Farmers’ meetings were continued in the new hall till 1885, when the Grange was organized to take their places. The organization occurred February 19, 1885 with Henry D. Tinker, master, Arthur Sikes, secretary and George A. Austin, lecturer. From that time till the present the organization has held meetings twice a month. When organized there were twenty-eight charter members; the membership is now two hundred.

Mapleton Hall later fell into disrepair but was restored over twenty years by the Mapleton Hall Association. Since 1978 it has been the principal performing space of the Suffield Players, who purchased the building in 1999.

Morgan-Williams-Francis Cottage (1885)

4 Agawam Ave

At 4 Agawam Avenue in the Borough of Fenwick in Old Saybrook is a Queen Anne cottage that was once located on the waterfront in Fenwick. It was built in 1885 for Henry P. Morgan of Brooklyn, who owned a large dry goods business, and was moved to its current location (4 Agawam Avenue) around 1901 by Ernest Williams, who was in the building supply business. His daughter Dorothy married Everett Francis of Middletownn. You can read more about the cottage in Marion Hepburn Grant’s The Fenwick Story (Connecticut Historical Society, 1974), page 170. (more…)

Jonathan Starr House (1790)

181 Bank St., New London

At 181 Bank Street in New London is a former house that now has a commercial facade on the ground floor. The house was built in 1790 for Jonathan Starr, whose earlier house, built in 1702, had stood on the same site. Starr operated a lumber yard that was located right across the street from his home. From 1914 to 1996 the Starr House was used as the James Drug Store and more recently has housed a restaurant, an antiques store and a hair salon.

Carpet Company Superintendent’s House (1840)

Carpet Company Superintendent’s House

The carpet industry in Enfield was started in the late 1820s by Orrin Thompson, for whom Thompsonville (pdf) is named. His company eventually became the Hartford Carpet Company, which merged with the Bigelow Carpet Company of Clinton, Massachusetts to form the Bigelow-Hartford Carpet Company in 1914. At 12 Pleasant Street in Thompsonville is the former Carpet Company Superintendent’s House, a Greek Revival structure built around 1840-1850.

Caleb Fuller House (1771)

According to the Genealogical and Family History of the State of Maine, Volume 1 (1909):

Caleb, son of Young and Jerusha (Beebe) Fuller, was born in Colchester, Connecticut, in 1735. He removed to Ellington in 1747. He graduated from Yale College in 1758, and received the degree of A. M. in 1762. He is called Deacon in some records, and Reverend in others. He married, October 28. 1762, Hannah Weld, daughter of Rev. Habijah Weld, the famous minister who preached at Attleboro, Massachusetts, for fifty-five years. [….] Caleb Fuller removed in 1771 to Middletown, Connecticut, and in 1790 to Hanover, New Hampshire, where he died August 20, 1815.

The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record (Vol. 35, 1904) states that, “Caleb Fuller seems never to have been a settled pastor, though doubtless he often preached as a supply, since manuscript sermons of his are now in possession of his descendants.” He moved to Hanover, NH, “perhaps because he desired to educate his son at Dartmouth College,” where he became “Deacon of the College Church.” Caleb Fuller‘s gambrel-roofed house in Middletown, built in 1771, originally stood at the corner of Main and William Street. It was moved west on William Street in 1842 when the First Baptist Church was constructed on that corner. In 1975 the house was scheduled for demolition as part of a redevelopment plan, but it was saved as part of an adaptive reuse plan. Moved to its current address at 49 Main Street, the house had its exterior restored and it was converted to office use.

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