Joseph S. Williams House (1899)

Joseph S. Williams House (1899)

A sign on the house (now used as a real estate office) at 62 Greenmanville Avenue in Mystic (in Stonington) indicates that it was the home of Joseph S. Williams, yeoman, and was built in 1899. Joseph S. Williams was no doubt related to Joseph Stanton Williams, whose farm once dominated the eastern side of Greenmanville Avenue. In the 1890s, the farm was developed into an industrial area. The old Joseph S. Williams farmhouse, which stood on the hill east of what is now Mystic Seaport, later fell into disrepair and was burned in the 1950s.

Covenant Congregational Church (1960)

Covenant Congregational Church

Covenant Congregational Church in West Hartford began as the Swedish Zion Congregational Church, established in Hartford’s Frog Hollow neighborhood in 1889. The congregation’s first church building was constructed on Hungerford Street in 1892. Its name was changed to Covenant Congregational Church in 1938. Covenant Congregational Church later moved to West Hartford, laying the cornerstone to its present church on April 24, 1960. Located at the intersection of Sedgwick Road and Westminster Drive, the church was designed by Painchaud and Ryder of Madison, Wisconsin and was built by Bartlett, Brainard & Eacott of West Hartford. The building was dedicated on October 16, 1960. The church, which is Lutheran in theology and Congregational in organization, is affiliated with the Evangelical Covenant Church.

Edward W. Morley House (1906)

Edward W. Morley House

Edward W. Morley (1838-1923) was a famous scientist and a professor of chemistry at Western Reserve College (now Case Western Reserve University) in Ohio from 1869 until his retirement in 1906. He is best known for his work with physicist Albert A. Michelson on the Michelson–Morley experiment (1887), which measured the speed of light, and for his research on the atomic weight of oxygen, which he published in 1895. Upon his retirement, he moved into a house he had had constructed at 26 Westland Avenue in West Hartford, the town in which he had grown up. He built it using dividends on stock he held in the Dow Chemical Corporation. The stock had been payment for his consulting work for the corporation. He continued his scientific research in a laboratory he built in his back yard. He lived in the house until his death in 1923. An elementary school in West Hartford was also named in his honor. (more…)

The Spanish House (1929)

The Spanish House

With its white stucco walls, red tile roof and detailed wrought iron work, the house at 46 Fernwood Road in West Hartford is an unusual example in Connecticut of the Spanish Colonial Revival style. Called the Spanish House, it was built for Mrs. Grace M. Spear Lincoln (d. 1971), who had lived for a time in Spain and wanted a house in the Spanish style. She acquired the land in 1927 and worked with architect Lester B. Scheide to design the house, which was built in 1928-1929. N. Ross Parke, an artist, completed the home’s interior decoration, painting the dining room ceiling and several niches inside the house. The building has a U-shaped plan surrounding a central court. The court is paved with cobblestones believed to have come from Asylum Avenue when the old trolley line was torn up. The owners of the house in 2003 received a West Hartford Historic Preservation Award for their work on the house, which included the rebuilding of the original 1929 courtyard fountain that had been almost completely destroyed and buried.

Old West School, West Hartford (1878)

Old West School

At 87 Mountain Road (corner of Buena Vista Road) in West Hartford is the town’s oldest extant schoolhouse, a brick structure known as the Old West School. Since 1936, the former school has been occupied by the West Hartford Art League, which purchased the building from the town in 1965 on the condition that it be preserved and used exclusively for non-profit cultural and educational purposes.

Turner House (1882)

A Stick Style residence dating to 1882 (or perhaps as late as 1892?), the Turner House is located at 274 North Main Street in West Hartford. A farmhouse, it was probably built by Daniel Lord, who died in 1893. The farm was then purchased by Margaret Turner, who farmed it with her husband until the 1930s. The land was then sold for a housing subdivision known as Sunny Slope. The house has an interesting external brick chimney that passes through the bargeboard trim at the gable end facing North Main Street. (more…)