Johnsonville Carriage House (1870)

Johnsonville Carriage House

In the 1960s, Raymond Schmitt, owner of AGC Corporation, an aerospace equipment manufacturer, purchased the former nineteenth-century mill village of Johnsonville in East Haddam and began to transform it into a 100-acre open air museum celebrating the Victorian era. As an attraction, Johnsonville did not keep regular hours, but was open to the public several days a year (most notably during the Christmas season when holiday decorations were on display) and for charity functions. For his recreated period village, Schmitt purchased historic structures from other places and moved them to Johnsonville. One of these was the Carriage House (built between 1870 and 1900) and an adjacent Livery Stable (built around 1920). They were moved by Schmitt from Winsted. Inside, he stored his collection of antique horse drawn carriages and sleighs, which were often used in carriage rallies and in rides for the public. After a disagreement with the town of East Haddam in 1994, Schmitt shut down Johnsonville and put the property up for sale. After his death in 1998, his estate sold off much of his antiques collection (including his carriages), several pieces of the property and even individual buildings. The remainder of the village has long sat abandoned and up for sale to potential developers. Thanks to Luke Boyd for introducing me to Johnsonville.

William Park House (1913)

William Park House

At 330 Main Street in the village of Hanover in the town of Sprague is a Craftsman-style American Foursquare house. It was constructed in 1913 by builder Peck McWilliams. The house was a wedding gift for William Park (1889-1971) from his father, mill-owner Angus Park, at the time of William’s marriage to Ruth Standish. The William Park House has stuccoed walls with Tudor-style decorative half-timbering and a porte-cochere on the north side.

Born in Galashiels, Scotland, Angus Park (1859-1929) emigrated with his family to Canada, where over twenty years he grew successful in the wool textile industry. As related in Men of Mark in Connecticut, Vol. V (1910):

He was employed there until 1894, when he came to East Lyme, Connecticut, and became secretary of the Niantic Manufacturing Company, being associated with an uncle, D. E. Campbell, and with a brother, William Park. He remained there until August, 1899, when he severed his connection with that concern and purchased the Allen Mill and properties at Hanover, Connecticut, which property is now known as the Airlie Mills. This mill had been closed for some time, and consequently was in poor condition. Mr. Park remodeled the mill and installed new and modern machinery at a great outlay of money. The mill is now one of the best in this region, and the product is a high grade of woolen and flannel suiting. In March, 1903, when the Assawauga Company, of Dayville, Connecticut, was organized Mr. Park became its manager, and one of its largest stockholders. In 1907, Mr. Park purchased the properties of the Crosby Manufacturing Company, at East Glastonbury, Connecticut, and organized the Angus Park Manufacturing Company, of which he is the treasurer and general manager.

The Park family woolen company prospered under the direction of Angus Park and then under his son William Park. The company continued in business until 1973.

167-169 High Street, Middletown (1880)

167-169 High Street, Middletown (1880)

Built around 1880, the Italianate house at 167-169 High Street in Middletown was occupied by the Hart and Root families before it became a residence for faculty of Wesleyan University. At various times it has housed a dining club, faculty apartments, departmental and administrative offices, the Wesleyan Argus and, most recently, the Shapiro Creative Writing Center and various offices at #167 and the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life at #169. The tower on the building’s northwest corner was once a story taller.

Church of Saint Patrick, Farmington (1922)

Church of St. Patrick

In 1870, Father Patrick Duggett bought an old building (a former clock shop) on Farmington Avenue to serve Farmington Catholics. In 1885 Farmington became a mission of Plainville’s Catholic church and in 1918 St. Patrick’s Parish was established. A basement church on Main Street was dedicated on November 27, 1919. The completed fieldstone church was dedicated on June 11, 1922. The donated fieldstone came from stone walls on local farms. Located at 110 Main Street, the Church of Saint Patrick has a pew with a brass plaque reading “Misses Bouvier” – it was donated by the future Mrs. John F. Kennedy and her sister in the 1940s when they attended Miss Porter’s School.

Fletcher-Fenner Homestead (1755)

Fletcher-Fenner House

Around 1739, John Fletcher (d. 1788) and his wife, Rachel Wing Fletcher (1697-1778) (they married in 1720 in Harwich, Massachusetts), settled in the village of Wormwood Hill in Mandfield. By the mid-1750s they had built the central-chimney house at 611 Wormwood Hill Road. According to Wormwood Hill: Its Settlement and Growth (2009) by Rudy J. Favretti and Isabelle K. Atwood, John Fletcher became wealthy purchasing and selling various pieces of land. His son John possibly lived in the house, which then passed to his younger brother, Capt. Richard Fletcher (1736-1812), who sold it in 1806. It then had other owners. In 1843 it was acquired by Amos G. Fenner (1807-1882), a farmer originally from Warwick, Rhode Island. His son William (1837-1918) and daughter-in-law Damorous Anstice Holley Fenner (1835-1907) later lived in the house and turned the south lawn into a croquet court. In 1913, their son Frank E. Fenner (1865-1933), who lived in Waterbury, sold the house to his cousin, George Silas Clark (1869-1938). In 1954, it was purchased by H. John Thorkelson (d. 2003), an economics professor at UCONN, and his wife Virginia, is now the home of their son, Peter Tork, formerly of the band The Monkees.