Historic Buildings of Connecticut - Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Naugatuck Railroad Station (1910)

The railroad came to Naugatuck in 1849 and by the turn-of-the-century the lines through town were owned by the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad. When the time came to design a new and larger railway station, John H. Whittemore, Naugatuck’s great manufacturer and philanthropist, who had done so much to shape the architecture of the town center according to his vision of a “City Beautiful,” offered to help pay for its construction if he could select the building’s architect. Whittemore, who was also director of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad, commissioned Henry Bacon to design the station, which was constructed between 1908 and 1910. The style of the building has been described as Spanish Colonial Revival, but also as Italian Villa style. Although trains still stop at a newer station nearby, the old station closed in the mid-1960s. Used for a time as a newspaper plant by the Naugatuck Daily News, the building has more recently been restored and converted into a museum by the Naugatuck Historical Society.

George Gould House (1896)

The George Gould House, built in 1896 for an oyster dealer, is located at 110 Ellsworth Street in Black Rock in Bridgeport. It is similar in some respects to the neighboring Arthur Smith House, another Queen Anne structure, although the Gould House’s tower is not on the side, but off-center along the main facade gable.

Arthur Smith House (1893)

The son of house builder David Smith, Arthur Smith was born in the Black Rock section of Bridgeport in 1847. After going to sea in his youth, he went into the coal business and later founded Smith’s Express Company. In 1893, he built a house in Black Rock at 118 Ellsworth Street (he had had an earlier house at 260 Brewster Street). The house was constructed by the Gould Brothers, local builders who lived nearby in Black Rock.

Everett Bevins House (1880)

The Everett Bevins House is an 1880 Victorian Gothic house at 6 Riverton Road in Barkhamsted. It is currently home to Sweet Pea’s Restaurant.

William Holt House (1845)

After Sabin Smith laid out Prospect Street in New London in 1837, he began selling off lots, one of which was acquired by William Holt. The Greek Revival house Holt built for himself, around 1840-1845, is at No. 19 Prospect Street. It has a later Colonial Revival entry porch.

John Shipman House (1697)

The house at 404 Main Street in Old Saybrook has been dated back to 1697 or even 1687. By the mid-eighteenth century, the house was owned by John Shipman. This Cape-style house has been altered over the years, but still has four fireplaces and a beehive oven in the kitchen.

St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, Litchfield (1921)

As described in History of the town of Litchfield, Connecticut (1845), by George C. Woodruff:

The members of the Church of England in this town, associated together for public worship about the year 1746, and it appears from their records that the Episcopal Society “was organized according to law, on the 26th of October, A, D. 1784.” Their first Church was erected nearly opposite the carriage manufactory of Mr. William Lord, about one mile westerly from the Court House. Their Church in the village was completed in the year 1812.

As further related in Historic Litchfield, 1721-1907 (1907), by Alice T. Bulkeley:

St. Michael’s Episcopal Church was dedicated in 1851 and is the third edifice, the first being built in 1749 about a mile west of the courthouse. The present church had a spire above the tower which was blown down in a storm a few years ago.

The current church building was erected in 1919-1921. In The Litchfield Book of Days (1900) is the following story about the earliest of these four church buildings:

When General Washington passed through Litchfield in the Revolutionary War, the soldiers, to evince their attachment to him, threw a shower of stones at the windows of the Episcopal Church. He reproved them, saying: “I am a Churchman, and wish not to see the church dishonored and desolated in this manner.”