46 Tolland Green (1815)

Perhaps built as early as 1815 by Danforth Richmond, the building at 46 Tolland Green in Tolland served as a general store for a century and a half. Various businesses have occupied space inside over the years and at one time, manufacturer Henry Underwood had a workshop on the second floor. Other businesses included a shoe shop in the 1850s, A.W. Munger’s store in the 1860s, and J.P. Root’s store around 1900. In the mid-twentieth century, the building housed the Red and White grocery store, run by the Clough family, complete with gasoline pump. More recently, the Homestead gift and antiques shop has been located here. Update: Again a store called Red & White is located in the building.

First Baptist Church of Wallingford (1870)

The Baptist church in Wallingford begun as a branch of the Waterford Baptist church in 1731 and was organized as the Third Baptist Church in Connecticut in 1735 and then the First Baptist Church of Wallingford in 1786. The church used a dwelling house in Meriden (then a part of Wallingford) as a house of worship starting in 1801. After Meriden became a separate town, the Wallingford members established their own church in Wallingford and built a meeting house in 1821. After the church burned down in 1869, the current church was constructed and dedicated in 1870. Located at 114 North Main Street, it is a brick building in the Romanesque Revival style.

Tariffville Mill (1868)

Starting in 1825, a mill and associated factory housing were built in the village of Tariffville in Simsbury. The original carpet factory burned in 1867 and was replaced the following year by the current factory. Built by the Connecticut Screw Company, a business that did not succeed, the Tariffville Mill, at 2 Tunxis Road, served a variety of industries over the years. Today, the structure is a mixed use office building, called the Mill at Tariffville, housing a restaurant several other businesses.

Whitehouse (1799)

The Joseph Battell House, a 1799 mansion off Norfolk Green on the Ellen Battell Stoeckel Estate, has long been known as “Whitehouse,” its name predating that of the White House in Washington, D.C. The house was built by Joseph Battell, a wealthy merchant whose store had become the market center for the region. He built the house for his future bride, Sarah Robbins, daughter of Rev. Ammi Ruhamah Robbins, minister of the Congregational Church next door. One of their sons, Robbins Battell, was born in the house in 1819 and died there in 1895. An 1839 Yale graduate, Robbins Battell was an adviser to Abraham Lincoln, and a benefactor to his town and Yale University. Called by Frederic S. Dennis “the father of modern Norfolk,” Battell was also a composer and art collector, who had a picture gallery at Whitehouse containing the works of many notable American artists. His only daughter, Ellen, was raised in Whitehouse and later lived there with her second husband, Carl Stoeckel. They were great patrons of music, constructing the Music Shed on their Norfolk estate in 1906. Carl Stoeckel died in 1925 and when Ellen died in 1939, she bequeathed the estate as a trust, primarily for the performance of music under the auspices of Yale University. It continues as the home of the Yale Summer School of Music–Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. Whitehouse, which has been enlarged and altered over the years, is currently being renovated.

Litchfield County Jail (1812)

The old Litchfield County Jail, at 7 North Street in Litchfield, built in 1812, is the oldest public building in town and one of the oldest penal facilities in the state. It also has the distinction, unique in the nation, of sharing for many years a wall with the adjacent bank. The jail had a cell block added in 1846 and a three-story wing with additional cell blocks in 1900. In 1992, the jail became a drug treatment center for 30 men serving prison sentences, but was shut down in 1993 and reopened the following year as McAuliffe Manor, a rehabilitation center for women. Since that center’s closing in 2010, the state has sought to sell the building. Among the possibilities being considered for the future of the facility are its conversion into municipal offices or its acquisition by the adjoining bank.

Captain James Thomas House (1790)

The Captain James Thomas House, which has Federal-style detailing, is on Killingworth Road, in the Ponsett District of Haddam. Capt. Thomas served in the Revolutionary War and returned to Haddam to farm on land given to him by his father, Lt. Ebenezer Thomas, in 1786. After occupying a house on Lynn Road, he moved to the one on Killingworth Road, which was completed by 1795. Rev. William C. Knowles, in his book By Gone Days in Ponsett-Haddam, Middlesex County, Connecticut: A Story (1914), writes of the house:

Large two-story house erected by Capt. James Thomas, soon after the Turnpike was opened. Was at one time a tavern. Capt. Thomas died in 1842. A few years later his son-in-law, Mr. Alfred Brainerd, came here to live. The present occupant is an enterprising Bohemian, Mr. Paul Jiroudek.

Sachem Farmhouse (1870)

The Sachem Farmhouse, at 15 Hopkins Road in Warren, overlooking Lake Waramaug, is just down the road from the Hopkins Inn. The house was built in 1870. In 1895, it was purchased by George Hopkins from the Beeman family. The Hopkins House was already being operated as a boarding house and George Hopkins also opened the Beeman House to guests, naming it the Sachem. It remained open until 1960. Still owned by Hopkins descendants, it opened again in 2007 as the Sachem Farmhouse Bed & Breakfast.