Thirman Milner, born in 1934, was elected to the State House of Representatives in 1978 and served as Hartford’s first black mayor (and the first popularly elected black mayor in New England) from 1981-1987. During that period, Milner lived in a 1927 brick Colonial Revival-style house (designed by Berenson & Moses) at 19 Colebrook Street.
The Greek Revival farmhouse at 319 Barbour Street in Hartford was built around 1875 by John Clark, with a front porch added around 1900. The rear ell was added in 1915, when the Women’s Aid Society opened a shelter for “friendless and erring women.” John C. Clark, Jr. opened a funeral home in the house in the 1950s, now called Clark, Bell & Bell. John C. Clark, Jr. was the first African-American to serve on the Hartford City Council (1955-1963). On the Council, he helped create the fair rent commission.
Now surrounded by houses of a much later date, the Greek Revival farmhouse at 249-251 Blue Hills Avenue in Hartford was built around 1850. There were once many dairy farms in the area, and this house’s owner, Charles Tuttle, operated one well into the twentieth century.
At 121 Holcomb Street, in the Blue Hills section of Hartford, is a striking example of the Stick Style. A Victorian Stick cottage built around 1875, it displays the style‘s distinctive trademarks of decorative half-timbering (called stickwork) and ornamental woodwork.
This week we’ll focus on buildings in the North End of Hartford. The Samuel F. Cadwell House, at 20 Belden Street in the Clay/Arsenal neighborhood, is one of the most impressive brick Victorian Gothic houses in Hartford; so impressive, in fact, that it is sometimes called the “Mark Twain House of the North End.” It was built in 1879 for Samuel Foote Cadwell, a dealer in seeds and agricultural supplies. The house was only sold out of the Cadwell family in 1967. Later abandoned, the Cadwell House and other nineteenth-century houses on Belden Street were recently rehabilitated.
Members of the Southington Congregational Church met in 1863 to form a new congregation in the Plantsville section of town. The Plantsville Congregational Church was built at 99 Church Street in 1866. An excellent example of the Gothic Revival style, it was designed by J. Cleveland Cady, a nationally prominent architect. An 1868 book entitled The Architects’ and Builders’ Guide: An Elaborate Description of all the Public, Commercial, Philanthropic, Literary, & Ecclesiastical Buildings Already Constructed, and About to be Erected Next Spring in New York and its Environs, with their Cost Respectively, and the Names of the Architects and Builders, by John W. Kennion, contains the following description of “The New Congregational Church at Plantsville, Conn.,”
This building, designed by Mr. J. C. Cady, Architect of New York, is of the Gothic style, adapted carefully to the wants of the congregation. It is completely free from all shams and make-believes. The interior wood-work is of chestnut and black walnut, (except the framings of the open timber roof, which is of pine,) all waxed or oiled, showing the natural and beautiful grain of the wood. The walls are colored in flat tint, the ceiling a deep blue, and the side walls a delicate harmonious neutral. The windows are filled with stained glass of quiet and pleasing tones. Back of the pulpit, is a large arched opening, richly moulded, which is the frame of the apse, or semi-circular alcove, in which are the clergymen’s seats. Two large dormer windows in the roof, one either side of the pulpit, contribute greatly to the light and cheerfulness of that portion of the church—the light falling down upon the pulpit and the people, and not being directly in the eyes of the congregation, as is the case where there are windows back of the pulpit. It is capable of seating about five hundred worshipers, all of whom can see the speaker, hear him as easily as in an ordinary room, and enjoy good ventilation. The exterior of the church is quite picturesque, with graceful tower and spire, capacious porches, gables, &c., all harmonizing with the situation and expressive of their various purposes.
As described in The Bench and Bar of Litchfield County, Connecticut (1909):
Romeo Lowery, born in Farmington in 1793. graduated at Yale in 1818, studied at the Litchfield Law School and was admitted to this Bar in 1820. He settled in Southington and was a highly respected member of the Hartford County Bar and a Judge of the County Court. He died in 1856.
Lowery also invested in two local companies that would later became part of Southington’s two most successful firms, Plant Bros. Manufacturing Company and Peck, Stow & Wilcox. Lowery’s 1828 house is at 101 North Main Street in Southington. It remained in his family until 1964 and is today used as offices.
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