First Congregational Church of Vernon (1966)

In 1760, the parish of North Bolton (which became the Town of Vernon in 1808) was established, formed from the north part of Bolton and the east part of Windsor’s Second Ecclesiastical Society. The first meeting house of the parish was built in 1762 on what is now Sunnyview Drive. A new building was erected on the Hartford Turnpike in 1826 and was dedicated in 1827. In 1851, the church was moved back several feet. A steeple and columns were also added to the church at that time. In 1896 the church’s spire, which had decayed, was taken down. The spire was eventually replaced, but the Hurricane of 1938 blew down the steeple and damaged the church’s roof, necessitating that the spire again be restored in 1939. The entire building was destroyed by a fire on January 23, 1965. Services were held in the Vernon Elementary School while a new church was built, which opened on September 25, 1966. The new building of the First Congregational Church of Vernon was designed to be as much like the previous Greek Revival church as possible.

Lemuel Camp Tavern (1806)

Lemuel Camp built his house on Main Street in Durham in 1806 and it was soon opened as a tavern. Lemuel Camp died in 1843 and his widow, Martha Pickett Camp, in 1860. The house was then divided between their surviving children, Edward Pickett Camp of New Haven and his unmarried sister, Sophronia Camp, but neither lived in the house. Sallie B. Strong bought the property near the turn of the century and rented rooms to tenants. Edward P. Camp’s daughter, Hattie Camp, married the watercolor painter Wedworth Wadsworth (1846-1927) and they rented rented the house as a summer residence. The house has passed through other owners over the years and was restored in 1978.

Cathedral Lyceum (1895)

The Cathedral Lyceum (pdf) in Hartford’s Frog Hollow neighborhood was built in 1895 by the Archdiocese of Hartford for the Cathedral Lyceum Society, a catholic club for young Irish men. Located at 227 Lawrence Street, the Renaissance Revival building, designed by John J. Dwyer, served for many years as a community center for the city’s growing immigrant population. The church sold the building in 1920 to the Hartford Box Company. The structure later served as as the home of the Lithuanian-American Citizens Club. It has since been a restaurant, a dance club, a roller skating business and a balloon manufacturer. In 2003 it was purchased by the Melville Charitable Trust, an organization dedicated to promoting affordable housing, and was renovated to become the Lyceum Conference Center.

William H. Cadwell House (1891)

William H. Cadwell (1863-1941) was New Britain’s leading architect in the nineteenth century. In 1890-1891, he designed and built his own house, at 130 West Main Street in New Britain, as a gift for his new bridge, Frances Hadley (1871-1958). The ornate Cadwell House is a Chateauesque residence constructed of yellow brick, limestone and Portland brownstone with terra cotta ornamentation and slate roofs. The house is now home to the law firm of Camp, Williams, and Richardson.

Knesseth Israel Synagogue (1913)

Knesseth Israel Synagogue

Knesseth Israel Synagogue was built in Ellington in 1913 by Congregation Knesseth Israel [“The Gathering of Israel”], an Orthodox congregation of Jewish farm families. The shul was designed in the Colonial Revival style by Leon Dobkin and was built partly with funds from the Jewish Colonization Association. Founded by Baron Maurice de Hirsch, a wealthy German-Jewish philanthropist, the JCA encouraged Orthodox Eastern European Jews to become farmers. Knesseth Israel Synagogue was moved in 1954 from its original location, at the corner of Abbott and Middle roads, to its current address at 226 Pinney Street.