St. Mary Church, Meriden (1912)

German Catholic immigrants settling in Meriden first attended Mass at St. Rose of Lima Church and later joined with French-Canadians to establish St. Laurent Church in 1880. A decade later, their numbers were large enough that an independent parish was organized. The first St. Mary parish church, built of wood on Church Street, was dedicated on December 6, 1891. Bishop John J. Nilan blessed the cornerstone of a new church on October 27, 1912 and dedicated the completed Gothic church on October 19, 1913. The church continues to have a German-American congregation residing in Meriden and other nearby towns. Its parishioners share their clergy with St. Joseph’s Church in Meriden. St. Mary School opened in 1894 and closed in 2006.

Samuel Breese House (1836)

The house at 271 Court Street (formerly 273 Court Street) in Middletown was built between 1830 and 1836 by Barzillai D. Sage, a master mason who also constructed the First President’s House of Wesleyan University. In 1836, the property was sold to Samuel Breese. From 1852 to 1861, it was owned by Erastus Brainerd, of the Brainerd Quarry Company, and by his heirs until 1878. Since 1973, the house has been owned by Wesleyan University, which renovated it for use as offices.

New Hartford House (1888)

Sadly, this building was so badly damaged by a fire in the early hours of August 10, 2021, that it had to be demolished the next day.

I’m presenting the New Hartford House Hotel (in New Hartford) in this post, although I still have some questions about the history of this building. If anyone has further details, please contribute to the comments! It was built in 1888 (according to this post). A former hotel (it was once painted pink in the 1970s!), it now contains a restaurant and shops on the first floor with apartments above. There was an earlier tavern at the same location that was replaced by the current building. In 1846, Elias Howe was living in this earlier New Hartford House and using the basement as a mechanic’s shop. On September 10, 1846, Howe became the first person to be awarded a patent for a sewing machine using a lock-stitch design. A Handbook of New England (1916), by Porter E. Sargent, states that “In Howe’s shop, on the site of the New Hartford House, woman first sewed a stitch on a sewing-machine.”

(more…)

Riverton General Store (1889)

The Riverton General Store in Barkhamsted was built in 1889 and was originally owned and operated by the Hart Brothers. Charles Rowley bought the store in 1899 and passed it to his son, Alcott, in 1907. Both men were village postmasters in Riverton and the store was at the center of the village‘s social life. The hall above was once the meeting place of such groups as the Barkhamsted Chamber of Commerce and the Riverton Grange #169, which was founded there in 1908. The wing, now attached to the right of the original 1889 Italianate-style main block, was originally a separate building (built c. 1885). It was attached to the store in 1910. Later owners of the store (through 1934) were A. L. Lewis and Ernest G. Jordan. The store is still in business today.

Wilcox-Meech House (1872)

An Italianate double house at 55 Crescent Street in Middletown, the Wilcox-Meech House was built between 1867 and 1872 (or between 1880 and 1890) by John Wilcox, Middletown’s Chief of Police. George Thomas Meech purchased the property in 1881 and lived there into the 1930s. George T. Meech had served in the Civil War and later was a partner with Orrin E. Stoddard in the Meech & Stoddard grain and feed store. The house was owned by the Hubbard family (and became known as the Hubbard Estate) from 1937 to 1973, when it was acquired by Middlesex Memorial Hospital. It is now used by the hospital as offices.

Parker Homestead (1777)

At 640 Wormwood Hill Road in Mansfield is a house originally built by Capt. Richard Fletcher (1736-1812) and sold, in 1777, to Zachariah Parker, Jr., who farmed on the property. The house would remain in the Parker family until 1901. Zachariah passed it to his eldest son, Thomas Parker, who had five sons and one daughter with his wife, Hannah Atwood Parker. The elder brothers, Miner and Pliny, married, but the three younger brothers did not. Their sister, Hannah Parker (1804-1895), kept house for her brothers at the Parker Homestead, where she lived until her death. Hannah Parker also taught school at Wormwood Hill and professed to be the first female teacher in Mansfield. Her nieces and nephews inherited the house and sold it in 1901 to Gertrude Cantor of New York. She and her sister, Alice Cantor, ran the property as a summer boarding house. To make more room for their many guests, the sisters raised the house from its original one-and-a-half stories to a full two stories. (more…)