The Essex Savings Bank in Essex was founded in 1851. The bank was initially located above a retail business in Essex and in 1873 it moved into an 1849 building previously occupied by the Saybrook Bank. This building was remodeled and expanded into what it is today in 1922. The Essex Savings Bank was originally founded because of the wealth generated by shipbuilding. Unlike many other banks, it has never merged with another institution.
Several generations of the Pratt family continuously operated a smithy in Essex for almost three centuries. It was established by John Pratt, Sr., who began his shop in Saybrook and then moved it to Essex. His son, John Pratt, Jr., was a part-time blacksmith who built the Pratt Homestead in Essex. Next to operate the smithy was Lt. John Pratt, who passed it to his son Asa Pratt, followed by Asa’s son John Pratt, John’s son Elias Pratt, Elias’s son Edwin Pratt, James Lord Pratt (who was featured in the September, 1938 issue of National Geographic Magazine) and finally James’s nephew Edwin Pratt, who closed the smithy due to difficulties obtaining raw materials during World War II. At that time it had been the oldest continuously run family business in America. The old smithy building that survives today was built in 1848 by Elias Pratt. After the smithy closed, the building was used for various different businesses.
The Town Office Building at 7 Main Street in East Haddam is a Colonial Revival structure, built c. 1935.
The house at 2195 North Avenue in Bridgeport was built in 1919. Its first resident was Charles Levin, a clothier.
A Catholic chapel was built in Tariffville in Simsbury in 1856 and was destroyed by fire in 1876. A newly completed church was dedicated to St. Bernard in 1879. St. Bernard’s became a parish in 1881. The church was destroyed by fire in 1892 and the current Saint Bernard’s Roman Catholic Church, a wood-frame Gothic edifice on Maple Street, was dedicated in 1895.
Built the same year (1766) and similar in style to the David Hull House next door is the Joseph Chittenden House, at 78 Fair Street in Guilford. Born in 1727, Joseph Chittenden was a descendant of William Chittenden, one of the original settlers of the town. He lived in the house until his death in 1793. The house was in his family until 1827.
The John Collins-Stephen Spencer House, at 77 Fair Street in Guilford, is a Colonial saltbox house. In 1670, John Collins built an earlier house on the site. The current house was built c. 1727 around the the surviving chimney of the 1670 structure. Stephen Spencer, a blacksmith, had acquired the property in 1726. Deacon Peter Stevens of Saybrook bought it in 1804. Ten years later he sold it to the town of Guilford, which used it as an almshouse. In 1826, when East Guilford became the town of Madison, town property was divided and the almshouse, although located within Guilford, was owned by Madison. This situation lasted until 1832, when Madison sold the house to William H. Stevens.
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