A terrible tragedy took place yesterday in Newtown, Connecticut. My thoughts go out to this devastated community, which is such a beautiful place. The house pictured above, at 46 Main Street in Newtown, was built around 1865 and was the home of David Johnson, who ran the Newtown General Store across the street. The picture was taken a few years ago, in the Spring during happier days. (more…)
The house at 463 Orange Street in New Haven was built in 1884-1885 for Major Thomas Attwater Barnes, who ran a grocery business. According to vol. II of A Modern History of New Haven and Eastern New Haven County (1918), Thomas Attwater Barnes‘s father, Amos Foote Barnes,
came to New Haven from Watertown, Connecticut, in 1836 and in 1842 began his independent business career as a grocer, the outgrowth of which was the wholesale grocery business conducted for many years under the name of Fintch & Barnes and one of the well and favorably known business houses of the city. He married Nancy Richards Attwater, daughter of Thomas Attwater, and a descendant of David Attwater, one of the first settlers of New Haven.
Thomas Attwater Barnes, son of Amos F., was born in New Haven in 1848 and in 1869 became a partner of his father, when the firm name was established as Amos F. Barnes & Son and so continued until the partnership was terminated by the death of the senior member in 1890. Thomas Barnes stood in the first rank of New Haven’s substantial and valued citizens, becoming closely identified with a number of the city’s large business interests and actively interested in its public affairs. He served as president of the chamber of commerce; secretary of the State Board of Trade; president of the Union & New Haven Trust Company, which he organized; vice president and a director of the First National Bank, of which his father was an organizer; a trustee of the Connecticut Savings Bank, and director in a number of other corporations in New Haven and elsewhere. He was a member of the New Haven Grays, a famous organization in the city’s history, known as Company F, Second Regiment of the National Guard of Connecticut, joining as a private and advancing to the rank of major in the regiment. He died in 1902. Major Barnes was married in 1873 to Phoebe Bryan Phipps, daughter of Frank Goffe Phipps, of New Haven. Mrs. Barnes passed away in 1903, the mother of two children, Amos Foote and Frank Goffe Phipps, the elder also a resident of New Haven.
Biographical descriptions of T. Attwater Barnes can also be found in Taylor’s Souvenir of the Capitol (1897-1898) and in Vol. I of the Commemorative Biographical Record of New Haven County, Connecticut (1902).
Built around 1840, the Elam Pearl House is a Greek Revival-style residence at 801 Hartford Turnpike in Vernon Center. According to the Barbour Collection of Connecticut Town Vital Records, Elam Pearl of Vernon married Lovinia J. Merrick of Willington on October 10, 1832.
Five generations of the Strong family have operated Strong Farm in Vernon, one of the last farms to continue in the suburban town. The farm was established by Nathan Morgan Strong, who built the farmhouse at 274 West Street (at the corner of Peterson Road) in 1878. Originally a dairy farm, after 1965 Strong Farm switched to turkeys, pumpkins, and other crops. Norman Strong, who died in 2010 at the age of 93, was known as the “turkey man” of Vernon. He was happy to show local school children the working of the farm, a tradition continued by the Strong family today, who are working to transform the farm into a non-profit historical agricultural education center. In September, the house sustained damage when a car crashed into it.
The house at 264 Court Street in Middletown was built in 1873-1874 on land that had once been part of the Russell Estate. The house was built by John and Maria Haskell and remained in the Haskell family until 1921. John Haskell was a partner in Willard & Haskell, a company that dealt in lumber and manufactured sash, blinds and doors. From 1921 to 1933, the house was owned by Mary T. Vinal and then by Sebastian Pappalardo. Since 1958, the house has been owned by Wesleyan University and used as faculty housing.
One of the prominent Victorian-era residences in East Haddam is the Boardman House at 8 Norwich Road. Luther Boardman and his son Norman S. Boardman owned factories which produced Britannia spoons and nickel, silver, and silver plated ware. The Boardmans built two notable mansions in East Haddam, one of which is the house at 8 Norwich Road, an Italianate villa built around 1860. The National Register of Historic Places nomination for the East Haddam Historic District lists the house as the Luther Boardman House, while an 1880 bird’s-eye-view of East Haddam lists it as the residence of N.S. Boardman. In more recent years, the residence housed an antiques shop and is today a luxury inn called The Boardman House. (more…)
Several religious congregations have used the building at 540 East Washington Street in Bridgeport over the years. It was built in 1866-1867 as the Bethesda Mission Chapel and Sunday School. It was later home to the East Washington Avenue Baptist Church (formed in 1874) and then to Congregation Adath Israel, the first Orthodox synagogue in Bridgeport. The edifice’s current cornice dates to 1902. Today the building is owned by the Apostolic Worship Center. The AWC purchased it in 1997 and completed renovating the sanctuary in 2002.
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