The Queen Anne house at 385 Barnum Avenue in East Bridgeport was built in 1892 for A.W. Burritt, owner of a lumber company. In 2007, the house was acquired by the Bridgeport Rescue Mission and renovated to serve as a shelter for homeless women.
The house at 25 Prospect Street in New London is a notable early example of the work of Lewis Crandall, a carpenter and builder. Built in 1838-1839, the Greek Revival house has a French Second Empire tower, added later.
The Capitol Building, at 410 Asylum Street in Hartford, was built in 1926 as a retail and office block, a primary tenant being the newly chartered Capitol National Bank and Trust. The neo-Classical Revival structure was built by two partners, Joseph Ferrigno and Thomas Perrone and was designed by Thomas W. Lamb. Left vacant in the fall of 2007, the building was in danger of being demolished for a parking lot. City officials and preservationists successfully worked to have the Capitol Building listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Capitol Center, a group headed by Milton and Betty Ruth Hollander of Stamford, then donated the building to Common Ground, a New York-based nonprofit developer. Now known as the Hollander, the building has been converted into mixed-income apartments.
As related in D. Hamilton Hurd’s History of Fairfield County, Connecticut (1881):
Samuel Clayton Kingman, the second son of Samuel Kingman, was born in South Redding, Mass. (now Wakefield), in 1830, graduated in the high school, and was the valedictorian of his class. The following year he spent at sea for the benefit of his health, after which he served his time as a machinist in the celebrated Lawrence Machine-Shop, with such apprentices as Amos Whitney, Joseph Marble, F. Higgins, and J. A. Taylor, after which he spent one year in the service of Col. Anderson, at the Tredegar Works at Richmond, Va. Upon his return he entered the employ of the Wheeler & Wilson Manufacturing Company, at Watertown, Conn., organized about that time [1852; the company moved to Bridgeport in 1856], and still remains in their employ. He has invented a number of machines for the Company which have resulted in a great saving of labor.
Mr. Kingman was married in 1853 to Miss Emily Eustis Brooks, at Haverhill, Mass., a descendant of Governor Eustis. He has ever been a benefactor to the poor and sorrowing, and his gifts, with those of his companions, have been many. The bell of the Park Street Church, to which they belonged, memorizes the death of a soldier, friend, and brother, Albion D. Brooks, killed at Cold Harbor, June 3, 1864. The clock and communion-table presented by them attest their interest in the welfare of their church.
Mr. Kingman resides at Washington Park, [in East Bridgeport,] in a delightful residence, surrounded by his family, which consists of his wife and live daughters. He has occupied many positions of public trust, and enjoys the confidence and esteem of the citizens of the city in which he resides.
As a prominent citizen of Bridgeport, Kingman was appointed a secretary of the meeting of Republicans in Washington Hall that heard a speech by Abraham Lincoln on March 10, 1860. Kingman’s house in East Bridgeport was built in 1870. Located at 373 Noble Avenue, it was designed by architect Abram Skaats.
The Nathaniel Backus House, at 44 Rockwell Street in Norwich, was built as a Colonial era house in 1750, but is notable for its later Federal-style detailing. The house is named for Nathaniel Backus, Jr., who married Hannah Baldwin in 1726. Backus was one of only six men in Norwich who owned their own carriages in the years before the Revolutionary War. The house originally stood on lower Broadway. In 1951, it was saved from demolition and moved to Rockwell Street by the Faith Trumbull Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Together with the neighboring Perkins-Rockwell House, the Backus House is operated as a museum by the DAR.
The town of Scotland began as a parish within the town of Windham in 1732, incorporating as a separate town in 1857. As described in the 1889 History of Windham County:
The new society met to organize June 22d, 1732, at the house of Nathaniel Huntington. […] After settling some disputes as to the law in regard to electing officers, the society unanimously set to work to locate and build a meeting house. The site decided upon was ” a knoll, east side of Merrick’s brook, south side of the road from Windham to Canterbury.” Nathaniel Huntington, who owned the land, promptly made over a quarter of an acre for that purpose. June 25th, 1733, it was voted to build a house 43 by 33 feet and twenty feet high, the roof and sides to be, covered with chestnut sawed shingles and clapboards. The work went bravely forward and by November 20th a society meeting was held in the house. Then the windows were glazed, and rough board seats provided, as well as a ” conveniency for a minister to stand by to preach.” […]
[In 1772], it was voted to build a new meeting house, the vote calling out 98 “yeas” and 20 “nays.” It was agreed to give Mr. Elisha Lillie £750 for building the house. It was several years in course of construction. It was completed enough to be seated in December, 1778, and in the following May the work was formally accepted from the hands of Mr. Lillie, the contractor. The old building then being offered for sale at auction, brought seventeen pounds.
The third and current meeting house on the Scotland Green was built in 1842 and, again quoting from the History of Windham County, “A neat and convenient chapel was purchased and fitted up adjoining the church in 1867.” The Chapel had been built in 1842 and had been the Town Hall. (more…)
In 1861, David Camp built his own house on the east side of Main Street in Durham (14-16 Main Street, old numbering; 37 Main Street, current numbering). Camp was a carpenter from a prominent family of carpenters in nineteenth-century Durham.
You must be logged in to post a comment.