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

St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, East Haddam (1890)

An Episcopal Society in East Haddam was formed in 1791 by members of the First Congregational Church, who perhaps left that congregation because of plans to build a new meeting house too far from the Connecticut River landings. In 1795, the Society built the first St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church on a hill overlooking the East Haddam river landings. The current church building, at 31 Main Street, was consecrated in 1890. It was built on land offered to the church by Judge Julius Attwood. The church was constructed in an eclectic Victorian mode in which the Shingle style predominates. The church’s bell, acquired in 1834-1835, came from a Spanish monastery and bears an inscription with the date 815. After the congregation moved to the current church, the bell sat on a wall near the church until a bell tower was completed in 1904.

Joseph A. Lord House (1835)

Built circa 1838, the Joseph A. Lord House in located at 30 Main Street in East Haddam. In 1919 the house was acquired by Henrietta More Crook, wife of Dr. Joseph Bruce Crook (1886-1945). He added an ell to the house to use as his medical office. Now home to an insurance company, the house also has a circa 1920 hipped roof portico over the front entrance.

Holmes Morse House (1874)

A Victorian Italianate home among the many colonial and colonial revival houses of Litchfield is the Holmes Morse House at 135 South Street. The house was built in 1874 and in 1920 was listed as the home of Betsy F. Morse (possibly the widow of Holmes Morse?) I don’t know the relationship of Holmes Morse and Holmes O. Morse, who was on the Board of Directors of the Shepaug Railroad Company, became Commissioner of the Superior Court from Litchfield in 1884 and died in 1898.

Moses Rowe House (1767)

The Moses Rowe House is located at 78 South Main Street in Suffield. It is a colonial house, built in 1767, that was later altered in the Greek Revival style, when the roof was also raised.

Timothy Phelps House (1795)

The house at 155 South Main Street in Suffield was built in 1795 by Joseph Howard, a skilled cabinetmaker and woodworker, for Timothy Phelps. The house is a fine example of the classical detailing of the the Federal style. Capt. Timothy Phelps served in the War of 1812 and was successful in the tannery business.

Bristol National Bank (1904)

The Bristol National Bank, organized by John H. Sessions and Charles S. Treadway, was chartered in 1875. Sessions was president until his death in 1899 and was succeeded by Treadway, who died in 1905. The bank occupied a building on Main Street, built in 1877-1878, until a new building (245-247 Main Street), built in 1904-1905, was ready for occupancy in August, 1905. The 1878 building was then demolished, as the Hartford Courant described the plans on March 31, 1904, “so that the bank will have an open space between it and the driveway which goes to the freight depot of the “Consolidated” railroad.” As the Courant described the new building on August 3, 1905:

The bank building occupies one lot north of the old bank on Main street, which was erected in 1878. It has a liberal frontage on Main street and is two stories high. The construction is of Roman brick with white marble trimmings and in front are four large pillars. There are two floors; the first is used exclusively by the bank and the second contains the law offices of Judge Roger S. Newell, William J. Malone, the probate court rooms, and the patent law department of the New Departure Manufacturing Company, which occupies three rooms.

The building was designed by Theodore Peck and built by the Torrington Building Company. In 1922, the bank moved again, this time to a new building, located further south on Main Street.

The Quiet House (1766)

The house at 711 Main Street in Plymouth Center was built in 1765-1766 and was owned by Major David Smith, who served with George Washington at Valley Forge. Washington stayed at this house in September 1780 on his way to meet the Comte de Rochambeau in Hartford. The house was later (c. 1850) operated as an inn by A.B. Curtiss and, after his death, by his widow. It was called it the Quiet House because alcohol was not served. As related in the History of the town of Plymouth, Connecticut (1895):

A. B. Curtiss was born in the town of Plymouth in 1819, and died at the age of sixty-seven. While a boy he entered the store of Edwin Talmadge as clerk, and his aptness for business and pleasant manners so commended him to his employer that when he became of age he was taken into partnership. The firm did a large business for those days, but unfortunate endorsements caused their downfall. Mr. Curtiss started in business again in the Stephen Mitchell store, but soon after bought the property where he died, remodeled the house, and opened a hotel. Except for a couple of years, when he kept the Brown hotel in Waterbury, he had for forty years welcomed strangers to his house and catered to their wants. He was well fitted for a landlord by his care to have everything pleasant, his genial hearty manners and business like ways. He was a benevolent, public spirited man. always ready to do his full share in common enterprises. His later years were full of suffering, yet to the last he had a bright and cheery word for each friend and acquaintance. Mrs. A. B. Curtiss still keeps the doors of the Quiet house open to strangers and travelers, some of whom often travel out of their way to indulge in the homelike accommodations that are to be had there.