Goodwin Stoddard House (1877)

The house at 499 Washington Avenue in Bridgeport was built in 1877 for attorney Goodwin Stoddard. The house’s Victorian design has been compromised by the large modern addition which hides most of the original front of the building below the roof-line. Formerly the Spadaccino Funeral Home, the building is now owned by the Bridgeport Apostolic Church. According to Volume 2 of the Encyclopedia of Connecticut Biography (1917):

Goodwin Stoddard, of Bridgeport, son of Joseph and Sophia (Buddington) Stoddard, was born in Bethany, New Haven county, Connecticut, April 2, 1847. His education was completed at the University of Albany, where he was graduated in 1867, and where also he pursued his professional studies. He was admitted to the bar in New York State and Connecticut in 1868. He began practice in 1868 and immediately engaged in the trial of causes in Fairfield and adjacent counties, where he became one of the most eminent lawyers of the Connecticut bar. He was connected with many of the important cases, and served an important and influential clientele. Mr. Stoddard died July 26, 1909.

Mr. Stoddard married, October 21, 1875, Julia E. Sanford, born October 20, 1855, daughter of Edwin G. and Emily Adeline Sanford, of Bridgeport. They were the parents of two sons, Sanford and Henry B.

Granby Grange Hall (1866)

The building which today serves as the hall for Granby Grange No. 5 was built just after the Civil War (c. 1866?) as a one-room schoolhouse. In 1902, the town hall moved into the building after an earlier town hall burned down. In 1946, the Granby Grange bought the building from the town and moved it 150 feet south to its current location, at 212 North Granby Road, across from the First Congregational Church. The Granby Grange was first established in 1875, but in 1890 a group purchase of bad seeds led to its disbandment. It was reestablished in 1926 and has continued ever since.

Morris Plan Bank, Bridgeport (1924)

Morris Plan banks, private banking organizations which gave small loans to industrial workers, emerged in the second decade of the twentieth century and thrived through the end of the Great Depression. The Morris Plan Bank in Bridgeport was designed by Ernest G. Southey and was built at 102 Bank Street in 1924. Today, the building is part of the City Trust Building Complex, a commercial and apartment complex which also includes the Bridgeport City Trust Company Building (1927-1929) and associated Trust Department Building (the latter also designed in the Colonial Revival style by Southey), and the Liberty Building (1918).

Union Episcopal Church, Riverton (1829)

The first church to be built in the village of Riverton in Barkhamsted was the Union Episcopal Church. The Gothic structure was constructed of rusticated granite in 1829-1830 under the superintendence of Jesse Ives, first keeper of the Old Riverton Inn. For about thirty years, the church was used as a museum for the Hitchcock Chair Company, whose factory was located just down the street. After closing in the 1990s, the museum sold off its collection in 2003. Two years later, the former church was sold to Peter Greenwood, a glass blower, who converted it into a studio and gallery.