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

United Presbyterian Church, Thompsonville (1901)

In 1841 there was a dispute in the First Presbyterian Church in Enfield over whether an organ could be used in church services. Those in opposition to using an organ (their rallying cry was “No fiddle in the Kirk”) formed the separate United Presbyterian Church in 1845. They built a meeting house in Thompsonville in Enfield the following year. The church was built on land acquired from Orrin Thompson’s carpet company for a dollar with the requirement that they return the property when asked. This eventually happened fifty-five years later when the company built an expansion. A new church building was erected at 100 High Street in 1901. The church had an organ, the original cause of separation having long disappeared by that time. The church was damaged by a fire in 1943 but was repaired after eleven months of work. The church merged with the First Presbyterian Church in 1973 to form the Calvary Presbyterian Church, located on King Street in the southwestern corner of Enfield. The old church building on High Street then served as the Enfield Senior Center from 1974-2003 and afterward housed town offices, a local theater group and the New Life Community Church. This year, the Town of Enfield solicited proposals for development of the property, which is now called the Village Center. The town requires adaptive reuse of the building that will preserve its impressive stained glass windows.

John Fuller House (1824)

The house at 463 Halliday Avenue in Suffield was built in 1824 by George Fuller. It remained in the Fuller family (and is known as the John Fuller House) until the Town of Suffield bought the property in 1887 to serve as a Town Farm. The house became the town’s “poorhouse” or “alms house,” whose able-bodied residents were required to work at the adjacent farm. In 1886, a man known as “Old Cato” died in the house who had been a slave owned by Major John Davenport in Stamford in the years before the War of 1812. The house was sold back to private ownership at auction in 1952. (more…)

Timothy Wadsworth House (1829)

The will of Eliphalet Wadsworth, who died in 1823, deeded his land in Farmington to his relative Timothy Wadsworth, but also gave life use of the property to his widow Mary. In 1829, Timothy Wadsworth replaced the original eighteenth-century (1795?) house with a new Greek Revival one. Here he lived with his wife Mary until he died in 1841. She continued to reside there until she passed away in 1862. Their children sold the property in 1865. According to tradition, the house was a station on the Underground Railroad. In helping fugitive slaves, the Wadsworth’s made use of the passenger boats on the Farmington Canal, which ran through their property behind their house. The Timothy Wadsworth House, which is located at 340 Main Street in Farmington, is now used for offices, having been renovated and expanded for that purpose, construction being completed in 2008.

Anshei Israel Synagogue (1936)

Like Knesseth Israel in Ellington and Agudas Achim in Hebron, Anshei Israel, at 142 Newent Road in Lisbon, is an example of one of Connecticut’s rural synagogues. A Colonial Revival building, it was built in 1936 on land given by Harry Rothenberg, a member of the congregation. The synagogue’s fifteen founding families were Jewish immigrants from Poland and Russia who lived in Lisbon and other nearby towns. More immigrants from eastern Europe joined the congregation in the wake of World War II. The building is now maintained by the Lisbon Historical Society.

Ephraim Bound House (1801)

The gambrel-roofed saltbox house at 43 Main Street, facing toward Ferry Street in Essex, was built in 1801 by Ephraim Bound. In 1828, it was purchased by Timothy Starkey, Jr. (he lived next door), who erected a store connected to the house and at a right angle from its northeast corner. The store was operated by Starkey’s son-in-law Joseph Ellsworth and then by a grandson, Timothy Starkey Hayden. The Hayden family occupied the house until 1926. The original store, destroyed in the 1920s, was replaced by a new commercial building in the 1960s. The house is currently also used for retail space.

Charles D. Talcott House (1865)

In 1856, the brothers Horace Welles Talcott and Charles D. Talcott bought the Warburton Mill in Vernon from the estate of Nathaniel Kellogg. They then began to build up the industrial village of Talcottville. Across from the mill, the brothers constructed twin Italianate mansions for themselves at 36 and 48 Main Street. The Horace W. Talcott House (48 Main Street) retains its original appearance, but the Charles D. Talcott House (36 Main Street) was altered in 1920 with elements of the Spanish Eclectic style.

Christ Church Rectory, Watertown (1846)

The former Rectory of Christ Church in Watertown was built in 1846 at 37 The Green. It was originally an Italianate villa-style structure, but the building was raised to three stories in 1912 and remodeled in the Colonial Revival style with an open two-story porch on the south end. These alterations may have been the work of Waterbury architect Wilfred Griggs.