At 78 Atwoodville Road, in the Atwoodville (formerly East Mansfield) section of Mansfield, is a house built in 1778 by Arad Simons. Born in 1754, he married Bridget Arnold in 1775. Arad Simons was in the Connecticut Marine Service and was later a civil engineer. The house has had many owners over the years, including Elisha Fenton (1774-1864), a blacksmith, and his wife, Philata Storrs, whose family lived there in the first half of the nineteenth century.
The Joseph Smith House, at 100 Ellsworth Street in Black Rock, Bridgeport, represents the transition from the Queen Anne style of architecture to the Colonial Revival style (note the Palladian window in the gable). The house was built in 1904 for Joseph Smith. Born in North Haven in 1851, he brought to Bridgeport by his parents in 1853. According to the History of Bridgeport and Vicinity, Vol. II (1917):
[He] was educated in the schools of Bridgeport and in Bryant & Stratton’s Business College. He made his initial step in the business world as a bookkeeper for the Wheeler & Howes Coal Company and later was with the Howes Sewing Machine Company for a short time. He afterward engaged in business with his brother Orland on Water street, selling fish, fruit and vegetables to the wholesale and retail trades. They built up the largest enterprise of the kind in the city at that time and the partnership was continued for a year or two, at the end of which period Joseph Smith purchased the interest of his brother Fairfield and entered into partnership with his brother Jeremiah in general merchandising at the dock in the Black Rock district, selling to crafts and boats. He continued in that line for some time and afterward spent two years with the David Trubee Butter Company, while subsequently he engaged in the butter business on his own account on Water street, where he conducted a wholesale store. He next turned his attention to the sale of wagons, having his establishment where the postoffice is located on John street. He there bought and sold wagons, building up a business of extensive proportions. At length he sold his place on the postoffice site to Gates & Omans and entered their employ in a place on the corner of Broad and John streets, where he continued for a number of years. He then opened business for himself in a carriage repository on John street, where he built up an extensive business in that line. At length he turned his attention to real estate dealing and not only bought and sold much property but also erected a number of residences and remodeled others, converting them into modern habitable dwellings.
Smith converted a number of earlier buildings in Black Rock into residences, including a former barn [no longer extant] on the Hackley Estate (which served as the Auxiliary Black Rock School, 1893-1905), which he moved to Hackley Street, the original Village Shop, the Hamilton House and the W.L. Burr Homestead, among others. The History of Black Rock (1955), compiled by Dr. Ivan O. Justinius, describes the Isaac W. Jones House, at 227 Ellsworth Street, as later becoming the Smith House and being passed to Smith’s daughter, Mrs. J. E. Hurlburt (her first name was Viola). 100 Ellsworth Street is also listed as the residence of Mrs. J. E. Hurlburt in a source from 1929.
The house at 640 Clinton Avenue in Bridgeport displays an English-style approach to a American Foursquare form. The stuccoed house was built in 1919 for Israel J. Cohn, a lawyer.
At 512-528 Main Street in Middletown is a two-story Colonial Revival commercial building with scrubbed terra cotta tiles on the facade. Built in 1925, the building displays the name “J. Poliner & Sons.” Jacob Poliner (d. 1933), an immigrant from Austria, first settled in Hartford and then moved to Middletown, where he established at shoe store at 548 Main Street (at the corner of Ferry Street). A leading member of Adath Israel synagogue, Poliner officiated as cantor in the congregation’s early days and was widely known for his knowledge of the Talmud. One of his five sons was Judge Isreal Poliner, who opened a law office in the Poliner Building in 1928. (more…)
Mentioned in Tour 8 of my new book, A Guide to Historic Hartford, Connecticut (which is now available on Amazon’s Kindle e-reader), is St. Michael’s Roman Catholic Church, located at 7 Clark Street in Hartford. Originally serving Irish-Americans, St. Michael’s parish was created out of the northern portion of St. Anthony’s parish in 1900. That year, a basement chapel was dedicated, with the upper portion being dedicated in 1906. The Renaissance Revival-style church, designed by Irish American architect John J. Dwyer, today serves a predominantly African American and Latino congregation.
The John Turner House (also known as the Turner-Stebbins-Chamberlain House) is a brick Federal-style structure at 290 North River Road (at the intersection with Route 44) in Coventry. The house was built around 1812/1814 for John Turner, one of several incorporators of the Coventry Glass Company, which made and sold a variety of bottles and other glass products from c. 1813 to 1848. Turner was later one of the founders of the Ellenville Glass Company in New York state. That company was organized in 1836 by a group of glass makers from Coventry and Willington, Connecticut. Currently under development is the Museum of Connecticut Glass, which has owned the Turner House in Coventry since 1994. The house will contain the museum’s permanent exhibits and offices, while a second building, acquired by the Museum in 2005, will house the institution‘s education and activity facilities.
The house at 754 Clinton Avenue in Bridgeport was built in 1915 for Edward K. Nicholson. According to the History of Bridgeport and Vicinity, Vol. II (1917):
Edward K. Nicholson, a member of the Bridgeport bar since January, 1900, and practicing since 1912 as a partner in the firm of Banks & Nicholson, entered upon his professional career well equipped by a thorough university training for the responsible duties which he assumed. He was born in Essex, Connecticut, in 1872, a son of the Rev. George W. Nicholson, who in 1894 removed with his family to Bridgeport to accept the pastorate of the First Baptist church […]
After acquiring a thorough preliminary education Edward K. Nicholson entered Yale and completed the academic course by graduation with the class of 1896. Four years later his alma mater conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. In the meantime he took up the study of law and in January, 1900, was admitted to the bar in Fairfield county. He opened an office in Bridgeport and for six months continued alone in practice, at the end of which time he joined Samuel E. Shaw in organizing the firm of Shaw & Nicholson, a relation that was maintained until 1909, after which Mr. Nicholson practiced alone until the present firm of Banks & Nicholson was formed in 1912. In the years of his practice he has been accorded a large and distinctively representative clientage and in the trial of many cases has proven his ability to successfully cope with intricate and involved legal problems. For two years he served as deputy judge of the city court of Bridgeport. In April, 1917, Mr. Nicholson was elected president of the Fairfield County Association for the Mobilization of Resources.
In December, 1900, Mr. Nicholson was married to Miss Mary L. Thomas, of Saratoga Springs, New York, and they have three children, Sylvia T., Edward K. and Miriam E.
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