Azel Backus House (1750)

In the view of Bethlem (Bethlehem) by John Warner Barber in his Connecticut Historical Collections (1836), the homes of the town’s first two Congregational ministers can be seen in the distance, behind a fence to left of the Congregational church. To the right is what is now called the Bellamy-Ferriday House, home to Rev. Joseph Bellamy. To the left of Rev. Bellamy’s house is that of his successor, Rev. Azel Backus, who served as minister from 1791 until 1812, when he became the first president of Hamilton College in New York. His former home in Bethlehem, built around 1750, was later moved from where it stood in Barber’s image to the nearby corner of East Street and Main Street South, just off Bethlehem Green. In the early twentieth century, it was home to Dr. William Doolittle and was called Doolicor (Doolittle’s Corner) Place (named as such in a pdf file of a 1934 listing of members of the American Public Health Association).

Church of the Epiphany, Southbury (1867)

An Episcopal Church in Southbury was established in 1843 at a meeting in the Bullet Hill School. Organized as the Church of the Resurrection, it was renamed the Church of the Epiphany in 1858. According to the History of New Haven County, Connecticut, Vol. II (1892), edited by J. L. Rockey, “The corner stone of the church, on the Shadrach Osborn lot, was laid November 5th, 1863, and the church was consecrated by Bishop Williams September 19th, 1867.” The main part of the building is stone, but the belfry is made of wood.

Loomis Homestead (1640)

The oldest house in Windsor is the Loomis Homestead, located on the campus of Loomis Chaffee school. The oldest part of the house is now the south ell, built by Joseph Loomis in 1640. His son, Deacon John Loomis built the main section in 1688, the year he died, possibly for his son Timothy. In the 1870s, planning began for what would become Loomis Chaffee, established by five Loomis siblings, children of Colonel James Loomis and Abigail Sherwood Chaffee, who had all lost their own children. The school’s first buildings, completed in 1913-1916, were designed to match the axis of the Loomis Homestead, several degrees off of true north. The old house itself remained in the Loomis family until Miss Jennie Loomis deeded it to the Loomis Institute in 1901. She continued to reside in the house until her death, in 1944. Then it became a residence for a member of the Loomis Chaffee School faculty and continues as a museum and memorial to the Loomis family.

Tolland County Courthouse (1822)

Built in 1822 on Tolland Green, the old Tolland County Courthouse replaced an earlier building built in 1785. Like the county jail across the Green, the courthouse was built by public subscription. It was designed by local architects Abner P. Davidson and Harry Cogswell and was built on a lot acquired from Calvin Willey, which had previously been the site of a tavern owned by Wilkes Williams. The last court session was held in the building in 1892 (the court was transferred to Rockville). From 1899 to 1985, the building housed the Tolland Public Library. In 2001, the Library gave the old building to the Tolland Historical Society. The second floor has been restored to a working courtroom appearance and there are also exhibits on the history of the building. The first floor of the old courthouse contains the library of the French Canadian Genealogical Society Of Connecticut.

Elm Grove Cemetery Chapel (1893)

The Ecclesiastical Society of Poquonock in Windsor was first established in 1726 and a meeting house was built the following year. This was replaced by a second meeting house in 1798. By 1820, church membership had completely diminished, but in the 1840s a new Congregational Church of Poquonock was formed (now the Poquonock Community Church), which built a new meeting house in 1854. The old Society’s church was eventually torn down in 1882, but in 1893-1894 a mortuary chapel for the adjacent Elm Grove Cemetery (earliest stone 1738) was constructed on the same site.

Bellamy-Ferriday House (1754)

Joseph Bellamy was a prominent Congregationalist minister, theologian and leader during the Great Awakening. He was pastor of the First Church of Bethlehem from 1760 until his death in 1790. Rev. Bellamy was the author of twenty-two books, the best known being True Religion Delineated (1750). In 1760, Bellamy moved into a Bethlehem farmhouse built in 1754. In 1767, he expanded the house and his son David, a farmer and legislator, added Federal-style embellishments (the Palladian pavilion on the south front) in the 1790s. After the Bellamys, some additional changes were made as the house had various other owners. The property continued as a working farm. In 1912, it was acquired as a summer residence by Henry McKeen and Eliza Ferriday of New York. After Henry’s death, his widow and daughter, Caroline Ferriday, continued to make improvements to the house and established a formal garden. After her mother’s death, Caroline Ferriday sought to restore the house, removing later Victorian-era additions. Miss Ferriday was an actress, conservationist and philanthropist. She left her house and furnishings to the Antiquarian and Landmarks Society (now Connecticut Landmarks) upon her death in 1990. Much of her land is now owned by the Bethlehem Land Trust, which she had helped to establish. (more…)