Middletown Alms House (1814)

The building at 53 Warwick Street in Middletown was built in 1814 to house the town’s poor. The Alms House was used as a poorhouse until the Town Farm opened on Silver Street in 1853. A number of businesses and organizations have since used the building, starting with the Hubbard and Curtis Hardware Company, and later including the Middletown Fire Arms and Specialty Company, the Middletown Rifle Club and the C.B. Stone Oil Company. The building once had a classical cupola on the roof and a central pavilion with a projecting gable roof (both were later removed, but the pavilion has been restored). It is now owned by by Lee Godburn, who has a hair salon in the building.

Rev. Joseph Graves House (1775)

On Miner Street, in the Westfield section of Middletown, across from the Third Congregational Church, is a house built sometime between 1775 and 1800, by Rev. Joseph Graves, first pastor of the Westfield Baptist Church. Rev. Graves was a descendent of Deacon John Graves, whose 1685 house is located in Madison. The house passed to Joseph Graves’s son, Josiah Graves, who also succeeded his father as Baptist minister. The house was in the family until 1884. It has matching additions on either side of the front facade.

Samuel T. Camp House (1865)

The Italianate-style house at 180 College Street in Middletown was built in 1865-1866 by Jeremiah Hubbard and sold, shortly thereafter, to Samuel Talcott Camp. In 1858, Camp had started a grocery business on Main Street with B.F. Chaffee. Camp was president of the Farmers & Mechanics Savings Bank, He was also a Trustee of Wesleyan University from 1880 to 1903. In 1905, the Board of Trustees established the Camp Prize in his memory, awarded for excellence in English Literature. After his death, his widow, Martha E. Smith Camp, remained in the house until her own death in 1924. The house was then acquired by Frank A. Smith, who added stucco to the exterior. (more…)

White-Stoddard House (1870)

Henry White built the house at 33 Pleasant Street in Middletown, which faces South Green, around 1870. White was in the coal business. As described in The Leading Business Men of Middeltown, Portland, Durham and Middlefield (1890):

The [coal] business now conducted by Mr. Levi S. Deming was founded many years ago by Mr. H. S. White, who was succeeded about 1860 by Messrs. White & Loveland, who gave place to Messrs. Loveland & Deming in 1871. In 1878 the firm-name became White & Deming, and in 1887 the present proprietor [Deming] (who is a native of Newington, Conn.) assumed sole control.

White was also a president of the Victor Sewing Machine Company, which was in business from 1864 to 1883. In 1895, Orrin E. Stoddard purchased the house from the heirs of Henry White. Stoddard was a partner with George Thomas Meech (they had served in the Civil War together) in a grocery business, Meech & Stoddard. According to the Encyclopedia of Connecticut Biography (c. 1917), “Besides dealing in grain, the establishment has long conducted a milling business and does both wholesale and retail trades throughout the New England territory and in other sections.” In 1927, the house was acquired by the Masons and is now home to St. John’s Lodge No. 2. The Masons added a large addition to the rear of the house.

Ward-Cody Building (1890)

This week the focus is on buildings in Middletown. The Ward-Cody Building, at 502-508 Main Street, is one of many surviving Victorian commercial buildings in downtown Middletown. It was built in 1889 or 1890 by George N. Ward, who developed much of the north section of Main Street in the later nineteenth century. In 1919, the building was purchased by Richard E. Cody, whose shoe store was located here for many decades. A marker on the building notes that this was, on November 26, 1899, the birthplace of Major General Maurice Rose, a son and grandson of rabbis, who was commander of the Third Armored Division (“Spearhead”) in World War II. On March 30, 1945, Rose became the highest-ranking American to be killed by enemy fire in the War’s European Theater of Operations.

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Southington (1892)

Episcopal services began to be held in private homes in Southington in the 1780s. The first church building was begun in 1791, but was not finished for many years. Many early members of the church were not dedicated Anglicans, but were Universalists who joined because of doctrinal disputes with the town’s Congregational church. As described by Heman R. Timlow in Ecclesiastical and Other Sketches of Southington, Conn. (1875):

It was a difficult work to build the house of worship, but it was more difficult to sustain service after it was built. It was a very plain building, and had Gothic windows to distinguish it from the “meeting house.” It stood where David P. Woodruff’s market now is. The original “proprietors” held possession of it, and for many years there were legal questions as to its rightful ownership. It was finally sold and converted into a store. In 1860 it was burned. […]

In 1828 the parish was united with that of St. Andrews, Meriden, then under the rectorship of Rev. James Keeler. Under the labors of this rector the parish gave signs of new life, it having thrown off entirely the Universalist element and established itself upon the doctrines of the Prayer Book. In 1829 the building was consecrated by Bishop Brownell. For a year or two there followed prosperity and harmony, but another secession took place in 1831 during the revivals that visited the town that year, and several of the leading members of the congregation became members of the Congregational and Baptist churches. Services were occasionally held by Rectors of adjacent parishes, and in this way a nominal existence was preserved. In 1840 the Unitarian movement absorbed most of the parish so that scarcely a remnant remained. […]

In 1862 an attempt was made to reorganize the church under the name of The Church of the Redeemer. The Rev. B. F. Cooley officiated for a year, and he was followed by Charles Allen, of Trinity College, as Lay Reader, who labored zealously for a year. The enterprise however did not succeed, and it was abandoned in 1864. Occasional services have since been held in the town by the Rev. Dr. Horton of Cheshire, and others.

In later years, the Episcopal church was again revived in Southington and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, at 145 Main Street, was built in 1892 in the Shingle style. A parish hall was added in 1899. It was considered a mission church, until becoming a “self-sustaining parish” by 1919. The church added a new parish house and classrooms in 1957.

Francis H. Holmes House (1908)

The Francis H. Holmes House is a residence of eclectic design (primarily Jacobethan, with Craftsman, Shingle and Classical elements) at 349 Rocky Hill Avenue in New Britain. Built in 1906-1908, the house was designed by architect Walter P. Crabtree for Francis H. Holmes, superintendent of the Holmes & Dennis Brick Company. The brick yard, of which Holmes’s father, John W. Holmes was a partner, was located nearby in Berlin, just a few blocks south of the house. The two men were also involved in the creation of the Central Connecticut Brick Company. Fittingly, for the home of a brick manufacturer, the Holmes House features a variety of types of brick. The house once had a porte cochere on the north side. (more…)