Second Congregational Church, New London (1868)

The Second Congregational Church of New London, at 45 Broad Street, was built in 1868. According to the History of New London, by Frances Manwaring Caulkins, “A second Congregational church was organized [due to overcrowding] by a colony of nineteen members from the first church, April 28th, 1835. A church had been previously built [it had been completed in August, 1834] and dedicated April 23d [1835].” This church, which stood at the corner of Jay and Huntington Streets, was later destroyed by fire and the current church, on Broad Street was dedicated in 1870. It was designed by the Albany, NY architects Nichols and Brown. The church suffered complete interior damage during a fire on December 3, 1926.

Norwich Grange Hall (1869)

The building which is now the Norwich Grange Hall was built in 1869 as the West Town Street District School. It replaced an earlier public school on the same site, which had no longer met the needs of the growing school population. Before that, the Bean Hill Academy of 1792 had stood on the site. A private school for thirty years and then a public school, that building had been demolished in 1831. In the 1920s, with the building of the Samuel Huntington School, the 1869 building was sold to the Norwich Grange.

Gen. Gold Selleck Silliman House (1756)

Known as “The Orchard,” the Gen. Gold Selleck Silliman House is located at 506 Jennings Road in Fairfield. A general in the Revolutionary War, Silliman took part in the Battle of Ridgefield in 1777. In May 1779, Silliman and his son were captured in their home by a party of tories who had crossed Long Island Sound in the night. U.S. Navy Captain David Hawley later captured Thomas Jones, a highly reputed loyalist, to exchange for Silliman a year after his capture. Gen. Silliman‘s house was also used as a place of refuge by citizens fleeing the British burning of Fairfield on July 8, 1779. Gen. Silliman’s son, Benjamin Silliman, became the first professor of science at Yale University and the first to distill petroleum.

William H. Barns House (1852)

Dates given for the William H. Barns House, at 17 Granite Street in New London, vary widely, including 1850, 1852, 1865 and 1875. Perhaps the house was built in the 1850s in the Italianate style, with the Second Empire mansard roof being added later. The Colonial Revival front entrance is probably also a later alteration. The house also has unusual flush board walls. William H. Barns, son of Acors Barns, succeeded his father as president of the National Bank of Commerce, serving from 1862 to 1866. He was also involved in the founding of other banks.

Robert Coit House (1856)

The Robert Coit House is a brick Italianate house on Federal Street, facing the mouth of Prospect Street, in New London. It was built in 1856 for Robert Coit (1785-1874), a merchant who dealt in lumber and coal and owned a chandlery, which outfitted ships for whaling voyages. Coit was also a founder of the Saving Bank of New London, formed in 1827, and served as the bank’s president from 1852 to 1858. The house originally had a wooden bay window over the front that was later removed and bricked in.

Jabez Smith House (1793)

The Jabez Smith House in Groton has remained virtually unchanged since it was built in 1783. The original farmer on the property, in 1652, was Nehemiah Smith, who raised sheep and horses and grew flax and tobacco. His descendant, Nathan Smith, built the current house after the original house burned down. He then passed it on to his son, Jabez and two more generations of Smiths followed in the house. It was later used by Ann Graham Clarke of New York as a weekend retreat. She left it to the town in 1974 and, after her death in 1980, the house became a museum.