Cragin Memorial Library (1905)

Begun as a lyceum in 1856, the Colchester Library Association was formally organized in 1879. Having occupied various rented quarters, the library’s permanent home at 8 Linwood Avenue was opened in 1905. A former Bacon Academy student, Dr. Edwin B. Cragin, a New York physician, provided the funds to complete the building, which was named the Cragin Memorial Library. Dr. Cragin was a specialist in obstetrics and gynecology, known for his phrase: “Once a cesarean, always a cesarean.” The Library was built on the site where the Cragin family home had once stood. The architect of the Neoclassical building was Albert B. Boss of New York. The library was later expanded with a new building in 2002.

G. Burgess Fisher House (1930)

Built in 1930 for G. Burgess Fisher and his wife, the house at 105 Scarborough Street in Hartford is one of the homes that will be open as part of the Mark Twain House & Museum‘s 31st Annual Holiday House Tour on Sunday, December 4, 2011. Described as “semi-Tudor” and French-Norman Chateau in style, the house was designed by Milton E. Hayman. It features Tudor elements (presented in a more ordered fashion than is typical of the style) and also has examples of classical detailing. The house was featured in an advertisement, headed “Modern De Lux Living” in the Hartford Courant of April 26, 1932. The ad, placed by the Hartford Gas Company, extolled the house’s modern amenities, including the “All-Gas Kitchen.” The original gas stove was later bought by Martha Stewart for one of her own houses.

First Congregational Church, Hebron (1883)

Hebron was incorporated as a town in 1708. The community’s religious services were held in private homes before a meeting house was constructed. There was intense debate in 1716 concerning where to built it, either north of the center village or on the Green. Eventually, a site on the Green was selected. The building was soon erected, although it was not fully finished in 1723-1724. Agitation developed over the formation of separate parishes and in 1747 the Connecticut General Court removed sections of Hebron to become parts of two new towns: the northeastern section becoming part of Andover and the western section part of Marlborough. The northwest corner of town remained part of Hebron, but was set off as a distinct ecclesiastical society, called now the Gilead Congregational Church, which held its first meeting in 1748. F. Clarence Bissell has related (in an address for Hebron’s Bicentennial in 1908):

Returning again to the situation of the town about the time that it was divided into religious societies; the first meeting house was in a ruinous condition, and there was much difference of opinion as to the location of a new one. But the necessity for a new one was emphasized by the burning of the old. This occurred Oct. 8, 1747 and was caused by an incendiary hired for that purpose, a half witted young man, who was afterwards prosecuted and committed to jail for the crime. During the year in which the old meeting house was burned there were held ten society meetings regarding a new one. It was finally voted to build a new house 60 feet by 48 feet and 25 foot posts, on the place where the old house stood. The new house was built in 1748 arid it contained some timbers that were already hewed for the addition for the first house, and saved from the fire. Some of these same timbers were afterwards used in building the new church in 1828, the building which many of us remember as standing until the fire of 1882.

That fire was described by Cyrus H. Pendleton (again at the Bicentennial):

April 17, 1882, a fire broke out upon the roof of a building, the lower story of which was occupied by Lucien H. Leonard as a store, his family residing in the story above. The fire started from sparks from the chimney. This building, known as the Hendee Store, stood just west of the Congregational Church, and with it was burned, the church and four other buildings on the north side of the Green, and the schoolhouse and two other buildings on the south side. The church and schoolhouse were rebuilt the same year, and two of the dwellings soon after.

The current First Congregational Church building was dedicated on May 1, 1883.

John S. Monagan Federal Building (1931)

On Grand Street in Waterbury is a white marble Art Deco post office, built in 1931-1932. The building was designed by George Oakley Totten. The facade of the Post Office features eleven relief panels illustrating the history of communication and transportation. In 1971, the building was renamed the John S. Monagan Federal Building and expanded in the rear to accommodate the District Federal Court and several federal agencies. (more…)

Timothy Wadsworth Stanley House (1860)

The Gothic Revival mansion at 1 Hillside Place in New Britain was built in 1859-1860 for Timothy Wadsworth Stanley, a successful businessman and state legislator. With his three brothers, Stanley had founded the Stanley Rule and Level Company in the 1850’s, which would much later become part of the Stanley Tool Works, founded by another brother. In 1866, Stanley became the first president of the Union Manufacturing Company. He was also vice-president and later president of the New Britain Savings Bank. His house was originally surrounded by a four-acre estate, designed by the landscape architect Jacob Weidenmann.

Sterling Bradley House (1835)

Sterling Bradley was a well-known citizen in nineteenth-century Hamden, who served as a selectman in 1832, 1833 and 1834. In 1829, he inherited the second of two houses built by his father, Amasa Bradley, on Whitney Avenue in the Mount Carmel section of town. As described in The Connecticut Quarterly, Vol. IV, No. 4 (1898):

Sterling Bradley, a life-long resident of Hamden, became the sole proprietor of the Cheshire turnpike during the latter part of the time when toll was collected. His stalwart form was a familiar figure, usually accompanied by a team of unusually fine oxen. At one period his home became the country tavern that furnished refreshment to the throngs of people that traveled over his road.

As described by John H. Dickerman in the Colonial History of the Parish of Mount Carmel (1904):

Sterling Bradley, whose houses and barns still stand as he built them on the old colonial highway, afterward the turnpike, was an early promoter of choice cattle. His Durham stock long held precedence in the town, and his name became proverbial as associated with fine oxen. It was the custom at the County fair to award a liberal premium to the most numerous and best team of oxen exhibited by any town within the county. The team started at or near the home of Sterling Bradley and continued to augment as it proceeded through the town until one hundred and twenty-five yoke of oxen were gathered in the “round up” on New Haven Green. Mount Carmel always carried home the banner of victory when an effort was made to get out its full quota.

While continuing to operate the tavern in the house built by his father, Sterling Bradley built a new house, around 1835, across the street, at 3997 Whitney Avenue.

Dr. Edward Fitzgerald House (1901)

The Colonial Revival house at 480 East Washington Avenue in East Bridgeport was built in 1901 (or perhaps as early as 1893). It was the home and office of Dr. Edward Fitzgerald, who was appointed medical examiner in the city in 1924. In the 1970s, the house was bequeathed to the United Way of Eastern Fairfield County by Dr. Fitzgerald’s widow and was then sold to an immigrant resettlement agency. By the 1980s, many Victorian-era homes in the Washington Park neighborhood were in bad condition and abandoned as drugs and crime dominated the neighborhood. In 1989, the house’s owner was beaten over the head with a crowbar and tied up by a burglar, but managed to free himself and shoot the intruder three times. In 1995, the house was eventually foreclosed on and sold to investors who were anticipating the opening of a casino nearby that was never built. The house was then acquired by the Washington Park Association and in 1999 was the first of ten properties in the neighborhood to undergo restoration by the Association in a revitalization project supported by grants, a loan and Federal tax credits.