Hall Memorial Library (1903)

Hall Memorial Library, Ellington

At the head of the Town Green in Ellington is the Hall Memorial Library, which first opened in 1903. The building was designed by architect Wilson Potter of New York, who specialized in schools and libraries and also designed the Bristol Public Library. The library was the gift of Francis Hall, who had left Ellington for Elmira, NY, in honor of his father, Judge John Hall, and his brother, Edward Hall, who had both headed renowned schools in Ellington. A bookseller, Francis Hall went to Japan in 1859 to collect material for a book and to serve as correspondent for Horace Greeley’s New York Tribune. He kept a detailed diary of his experiences in Japan from 1859 to 1866. In Yokohama, he helped found Walsh, Hall and Co., which became the leading American trading house in Japan. Two acres of land in Ellington were purchased from Chauncey C. Chapman for the library, with the understanding that the remaining part of the property would be maintained as a green. A 19,000 square foot addition was made to the library in 1992. Click for some postcard images of the library: 001, 002, 003.

John H. Brockway House (1837)

Brockway House

The house at 89 Maple Street in Ellington was built in 1837. It is referred to as the John H. Brockway House in the Nomination for the Ellington Center Historic District. John Hall Brockway (1801-1870) was a lawyer and Whig politician. He served as member of the State House of Representatives from 1832 to 1848 and as a state senator in 1834. He served in the United States Congress from 1839 to 1843 and was later prosecuting attorney for Tolland County from 1849 to 1867. In 1896, Miss Sarah K. Gilbert left the house in her will to become a parsonage (the Gilbert Memorial Parsonage) of the Ellington Congregational Church. It was the parsonage until 1973 and is now a private residence.

Austin O. Gallup House (1840)

Salem Herbfarm

In 1851, Judge Austin O. Gallup (1828-1896) purchased the Greek Revival house and farm at 320 Hartford Road in Salem, where he lived until his death. In the 1860s, Gallup made two additions to the house, which had been built around 1840, by joining structures from other properties. He also added a carriage house in 1866 and a barn in 1867. Fred Washburn purchased the farm from Julia Raymond Douglas in 1915 and in 1919 passed it to Alice Mitchell and her husband Edward, who ran a small dairy farm. Alice served as Judge of Probate and Edward as First Selectman. The farm later passed to their daughter, Margaret Mitchell, who deeded it to her niece, Anne Duncan. Anne and her husband, Joe Duncan opened the Salem Herbfarm in 1997.

William Redfield House (1751)

William Redfield House

The William Redfield House, at 96 Broad Street in Guilford, has been much altered over the years. William Redfield sold it three years after it was built. For a time the house was the residence of Rev. Daniel Brewer, who was dismissed as pastor of the Fourth Congregational Church in 1775 but chose to live in this house, then located next door to the church, until he left Guilford in 1779. Nelson Hotchkiss, a New Haven builder and contractor, bought the house in 1872. He moved it back from the street and it was probably Hotchkiss who also converted it to a two-chimney, center-hall house and added a Second Empire front porch. In 1974, the house became a furniture showroom, but has recently been restored.

Gideon Hale House (1762)

Gideon Hale House

The house at 1401 Main Street in Glastonbury was built for Gideon Hale, probably in 1762, the year he married Mary White of Middletown. According to tradition, the wedding party crossed the Connecticut River after the wedding to the newly-built house and ended up staying for a week because of a severe snowstorm. Gideon Hale (1736-1812) was a member of the Connecticut General Assembly (1782-1785) and Constable of Glastonbury (1873). From December 1814 until the spring of 1817, the Columbia Lodge of Masons met at the house. As described in The Hollister Family of America; Lieut. John Hollister, of Wethersfield, Conn., and His Descendants (1886), edited by Lafayette Wallace Case:

The death of Mrs. Hezekiah Hale, at the age of 94, leaves the old Hale mansion in Glastonbury without a mistress at its head for the first time since its erection, one hundred and twenty-three years ago.

It was in this house, then just built, that Gideon Hale and Mary White, who were married December 23 [1762], commenced housekeeping, and here their youngest son, Hezekiah, brought his newly married wife, Pamela, daughter of Dr. Asaph Coleman, November 17, 1813. The elder Mrs. Hale died, a widow, April 1, 1820, and Mrs. Pamela Hale died Oct. 8, 1885, having survived her husband fifty three years. For one hundred and twenty-three years, lacking a little over two months, the house has seen but these two mistresses. Gideon Hale and Mary White reared a family of five sons and six daughters, under the old roof-tree, all of whom, except two daughters, were married and left the old place; and Hezekiah Hale and Pamela Coleman reared a family of three sons and three daughters, who, with one exception, went into the world and had families of their own; and the descendants of both, now widely scattered, will greatly miss the cheery greeting and hospitable welcome of the last mistress, who always made a visit to the old home so pleasant, and whose fund of anecdote and information regarding those who had gone, always so willingly given, was full of information and interest. The funeral of Mrs. Hale took place on Sunday afternoon, and was largely attended by sorrowing relatives and neighbors. The Rev. Mr. Betts, of the Episcopal church, officiated. The solemn dignity of that beautiful service in the rural cemetery, under the bright sun and genial October air, made the scene very impressive.

Mrs. Pamela Hale, the estimable lady here alluded to, was an aunt of the late Hon. Gideon Welles, of this city. Mr. Welles held in high esteem the venerable lady, and he was fond of the old homesteads in Glastonbury, where his father lived and where he was born. He used to relate many pleasant reminiscences of those fine homesteads, and the prominent families who occupied them.

The house’s front Connecticut River Valley doorway is a reproduction based on nineteenth-century sketches of the original. (more…)

Glastonbury United Methodist Church (1886)

Glastonbury United Methodist Church

Glastonbury’s first Methodist parish was formed in 1796 and its first church was erected at Wassuc in 1810. Methodists in South Glastonbury built their own church in 1828. In 1847 the east parish built a new edifice on Manchester Road. After that church was destroyed in a fire, a new East Glastenbury Methodist Church was built in 1886. Now called the Glastonbury United Methodist Church, it is located at 494/508 Manchester Road in East Glastonbury.