John Allen House (1799)

John Allen (1763-1812), originally from Great Barrington, Mass., attended the Litchfield Law School from 1784 to 1786. He set up practice in Litchfield and became active in politics, serving as in the Connecticut House of Representatives (1793-1796) and the U.S. House (1797-1799). He was later a member of the State council and of the Supreme Court of Errors from 1800 to 1806. The John Allen House, at 91 North Street in Litchfield, was built around 1799. The Federal-style house was expanded and altered in the Italianate style around 1865.

James B. Cone House (1894)

The house at 127 Oxford Street in Hartford was built in 1894 for James B. Cone, a Director of the Hartford Carpet Comany and of the Aetna National Bank.  The house, designed by Frederick Royal Comstock, was featured in an article, titled “A New England Residence,” in the October 1897 issue of Carpentry and Building.  According to the article:

The treatment of the exterior is such as to give a rich and harmonious effect to the design, while the rooms are arranged with a view to the convenience and comfort of the occupants. A feature which will strike many as all essential in a building of this character is a broad piazza extending across the front of the house.

Some of the house’s exterior decoration has been altered over the years, while inside some of the rooms have been combined to create larger spaces.  The house was also later expanded with an addition to the south with a corresponding extension of the front piazza. The house will be part of this year’s Mark Twain House & Museum Annual Holiday House Tour, on Sunday, December 4th, 2011.

Washington Park Church, Bridgeport (1883)

The church at the corner of Barnum and Noble avenues (235 Barnum Avenue) in Bridgeport was built in 1883 as the Washington Park Methodist Episcopal Church. The brick Gothic church with elaborate terra cotta trim was designed by Lawrence B. Valk of New York. Organized in 1853, Park Church was the first church in East Bridgeport. Today, the building is Protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian Catholic Church. This parish was founded in 1950 and, the following year, acquired a church building and rectory on Grant Street. An adjoining building was purchased in 1958 to become the parish school, but in 1966, the parish was notified by the state that their property was required for the building of a hospital. In 1970, therefore, the parishioners voted to purchase the former Methodist church on Barnum Avenue to become their new home.

New Britain City Hall (1886)

The building which is today New Britain’s City Hall was first opened in 1886 as the Hotel Russwin.  Financed by Henry E. Russell and Cornelius B. Erwin, it mainly served the numerous salesmen and clients of the Russell and Erwin Manufacturing Company, makers of architectural hardware.  The Italian Renaissance Revival design was created by Joseph Merrill Wells of McKim, Meade & White (Wells was Stanford White’s principal assistant).  Wells was a pioneer in the use of terra cotta detailing, as displayed on the Russwin Building.  The same firm was hired in 1907 for the building‘s conversion into City Hall that took place in 1908-1909.  An addition to the building was completed in 1992.  On either side of the Russwin are two other nineteenth-century buildings that were later incorporated into the City Hall.  The building on the right/west side was built c. 1860 as the New Britain National Bank (the Bank later moved to a new building next door).  The building on the left/east side was built c. 1870 as a U.S. Post Office and served until a new one was built in 1911.  (more…)

Thomas Clarkson House (1850)

The Thomas Clarkson House, at 212 Huntington Street in Shelton, is a later Greek Revival house, built c. 1830-1850. According to the National Register of Historic Places Registration Form for the Huntington Center Historic District, the Clarkson House is essentially a Colonial half-house form with a shallow hipped roof. In addition, the doorway probably once had a traditional Greek Revival-style wide frieze and cornice, but this part of the entablature was later removed.

Captain William Bull Tavern (1745)

Happy Thanksgiving!! The Captain William Bull Tavern in Litchfield was built around 1745 on a farm on the East Litchfield Road, part of the Hartford to Albany highway. It is not known who built the house, but Capt. Bull was the owner of the farm by the 1790s. He had served at the capture of Fort Ticonderoga in 1775. The house passed through various owners until Frederick Fuessenich of Torrington purchased it in 1923. By that time it had fallen into disrepair and was in danger of being dismantled. Fuessenich saved it and moved the building to a new site about two miles away, placing it across from where the old tollhouse on the Torrington Turnpike had once stood. Fuessenich, an avid collector of antiques, restored and furnished the house, which he renamed the Tollgate Hill Tavern. (The house was featured in an article in the September 1925 issue of Country Life magazine). He also brought other colonial buildings to his property to create a period ambiance, including a house believed to have been the first school house used in the town of Berlin. The antiques collection was dispersed during the Depression. In the 1930s, Fuessenich and his wife established an inn at the Tavern. The Inn has since continued under various owners and the kitchen was completely renovated in 2003.