Music Vale Seminary Barn (1849)

Music Vale Seminary Barn

In the nineteenth century, Salem was home to what is considered to be the first music conservatory (the first degree-granting school of music, or at least music teaching certificate-granting school) in the United States. Founded around 1835 by Orramel Whittlesey, son of the local Methodist minister Rev. John Whittlesey, the school was first called Mr. Whittlesey’s School, later the Salem Normal Academy of Music, and eventually the Music Vale Seminary. Young women from all over the country came to attend the school. After its original rambling classroom building burned down in 1868, it was replaced by an elaborate Italianate structure. The school closed soon after Whittlesey’s death in 1876 and the main building was destroyed by fire in 1897. The school’s large barn, built c. 1849, does survive. It is typical of an “English barn,” a type also called a side-entry or eave entry barn, a “thirty by forty” (based on its dimensions), a “Yankee barn” or a “Connecticut Barn.” The school‘s farm played an important role for the institution, supplying animals and crops. The Bodman family later owned the Music Vale property and donated much of it to the Salem Land Trust. The barn is now part of what is known as Music Vale Farm. (more…)

Farrington Building (1925)

Farrington Building

The Farrington Building, located at 131-141 West Main Street in Waterbury, was constructed in c. 1925-1930 as an addition to the Westerly Apartments, a c. 1890 Queen Anne building. The Farrington Building is a two-story Georgian Revival retail and office structure. In 1935, the First Federal Savings & Loan Association, now known as Webster Bank, opened on the building‘s second floor. Its only employees were the company’s founder, Harold Webster Smith and a clerk. Smith started his new business during the Great Depression under the federal government’s National Housing Act, passed in 1934 to stimulate the economy and make housing construction and home mortgages more affordable. Webster Bank now has thousands of employees and numerous branches.

Former Methodist Church, Middlebury (1832)

Hilliard House, Westover School

Across from the Town Hall and the Congregational Church, next to the Green in Middlebury, is a former Methodist Church, built in 1832. The building was acquired by the neighboring Westover School in 1923. Inside, the pulpit was replaced by a colonial revival fireplace. It was used as a student “tea bureau” until 1932, then as the school library from 1935 to 1984. Now known as Hilliard House, it is used by the school for its alumnae and development departments and to house the school archives.

John Kellogg House (1840)

144 South Main Street, Colchester

The house at 144 South Main Street in Colchester was built around 1840 by John Kellogg, who sold it in 1842. It was purchased in 1854 by Philo Gillett, who had been renting it for some years. A merchant from Boston, Gillett formed the firm of Wheeler and Gillett in Colchester in partnership with Joshua B. Wheeler. Gillett died in 1858 and his widow in 1862, after which the house was sold to Samuel D. Tilden of Yonkers, New York, who added an ornamental wrought—iron fence, sadly since removed, along the front of the property. In 1878 the house was acquired by Henry C. Morgan, who served as Assistant Quartermaster-General and then Commissary-General of the State of Connecticut and used the house as a country home. The house then had other owners and since 1954 has housed the Belmont Funeral Home.