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

Enfield Shaker Village: South Family Residence (1852)

The Shaker community in Enfield (not to be confused with the Shakers of Enfield, New Hampshire) was established in 1792 and survived until 1917. 100 buildings were once a part of the Enfield Shaker Village, of which only 15 survive today. Living communally, the Shakers in Enfield grew to include five family complexes. The residence building of the South Family, on Cybulski Road, survives today. It is a three and a half story brick building with a wooden belfry. It has been converted into a private residence. There are other adjacent surviving Shaker buildings. (more…)

Henry G. Thompson House (1850)

The borough of Thompsonville in Enfield grew up around the carpet mill established by Orrin Thompson in 1829. His son Henry Graham Thompson later opened a stockingnet factory and lived in a Greek Revival house (now much altered) at 22 Prospect Street in Thompsonville. Around 1850, he built a new house at 34 Prospect Street. A Gothic cottage, it was designed by Alexander Jackson Davis in 1848. In 2002, residents responded to alterations that removed the house’s decorative features and installed vinyl siding. The siding was soon removed and the building restored with its “gingerbread trim” intact. Henry G. Thompson later built a large estate off Long Island Sound in Milford that he called Morningside.

Olmstead-Allen House (1848)

At 333 Hazard Avenue in Hazardville, Enfield, is the Olmstead-Allen House. It is a Greek Revival house, built in 1848 for George Olmstead (or was it John Olmstead?), who ran the tin works that provided canisters for the Hazard Powder Company.

Hazardville Institute (1869)

In 1837, Col Augustus Hazard bought into the powder-manufacturing enterprise in the section of Enfield that would become known as Hazardville. Hazard donated land (at the corner of Hazard Avenue and North Maple Street) for the construction of the Hazardville Institute, an Italianate-style building that was used as a meeting space by the community. It fell into disrepair in the 1970s and was saved from demolition by a group of preservationists in 1979. The building has recently been restored by the Hazardville Institute Conservancy Society.

Rev. Francis L. Robbins House (1830)

The Greek Revival house at 1280 Enfield Street in Enfield was built in 1830 for Rev. Francis LeBaron Robbins. Rev. Robbins (b. 1787) was a Congregationalist missionary who became pastor of Enfield’s Congregational Church in 1816. He served as pastor for 34 years, until his death in 1850. The house continued in use as a parsonage until the mid-twentieth century.

William Mulligan House (1886)

This week we’ll be focusing on buildings in Enfield. At 121 Pearl Street in Thompsonville (a section of Enfield) is an extravagant Queen Anne-style residence (with a stick/Eastlake porch), built in 1886. It was the home of William Mulligan, who was probably the same William Mulligan who was a dealer in coffins, caskets and funeral supplies (he retired c. 1905) and the William J. Mulligan who was State Deputy of the Knights of Columbus.

Tempolo Sion Pentecostal Church, Hartford (1900)

At 1886 Park Street (corner of Amity Street) in Hartford is Tempolo Sion Pentecostal Church. The church was built in 1900 as St. Paul’s Methodist Church. Designed by George W. Kramer, it replaced an earlier St. Paul’s built in 1894. The Romanesque Revival church has a flexible design (following the Akron Plan) adapted to its relatively small urban lot. The church lost its steeple in the 1938 hurricane.